


Promise Not To Break

by SpaceshipsAreCool



Series: Supercarp Promise-verse [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Dom!Lena, F/F, ch. 7 written by abcooper, dom!cat, sub!Kara, the ship name is Supercarp because it amuses me :P
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-09-23 16:07:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9664901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceshipsAreCool/pseuds/SpaceshipsAreCool
Summary: When Cat and Lena fell in love, they accepted that they would have to forgo certain desires in order to be together. For over five years they’ve been happy with that decision, but when Cat’s new assistant enters their lives, they can’t help but wonder if there’s another way.





	1. Chapter One

Lena lay on her side as she trailed her fingers down Cat’s back, admiring the way the thin veil of sweat caused Cat’s skin to glisten in the moonlight, highlighting the intricate pattern of red welts her nails had left across her wife’s body over the course of the evening. Her own body bore similar marks, a collection of scratches and bites whose sting—Lena knew from experience—would stay with her well into the following afternoon. It made her smile, as it always did, a mixture of sated jealousy and pride merged into one.

 

It was impossible not to feel jealousy when you were married to Cat Grant, not to see how other people looked at her at a regular basis. Cat was a vision at all times, magnificent in the way she wore power and exquisite in how she could make the world cater to her whims. Cat was the kind of person that you couldn’t help but want, and Cat was _hers_ , just as much as she was Cat’s. That was where the pride came in, and Lena would feel the marks on her body tomorrow and remember that Cat had chosen her above so many others. She would also remember that Cat bore her own marks, that Cat had allowed Lena to mark her in turn. It was a balance they drew between themselves with unspoken agreement. They were both too similar, and Lena knew that the way she felt about Cat, the mingled jealousy and pride, it was how Cat felt about her as well.

 

Her hand drifted dangerously lower, fingers disappearing under the sheet rumpled around Cat’s waist to glide across Cat’s ass, seeking out a bite mark she had left in one of her more inspired moments. The action earned her a glare from the other woman, and where most would have missed the playful glint in Cat’s eyes, Lena did not. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, she pinched the sensitive skin, yanking her hand back just in time to avoid being hit as one of Cat’s arms shot out to bat at her.

 

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, _darling_ ,” the endearment was dripping with false sarcasm, causing Lena to roll her eyes, and she couldn’t resist the urge to lean in and plant a soft kiss on Cat’s lips. It was nothing like the combative, bruising kisses they had shared earlier, but the satisfied hum that escaped from the back of Cat’s throat in response was just as appealing in this instant as the harsh growls had been in the ones before.

 

“Fine,” Lena pulled away, but she wasn’t quite ready to let the game go and she made an exaggerated show of tucking the offending hand out of sight behind her back. “But I would just like to point out for the record that I _would_ be up for another round. I’m only choosing not to in consideration of your advanced age.”

 

“How thoughtful, although I can assure you that you needn’t be worried. My age has given me the wisdom to know how to best to preserve energy and stamina. If you truly think you’re able, then by all means, have at it.” The words were accompanied by a subtle smirk, the one Lena had yet to completely figure out even after five years of marriage. She loved that there were still things to learn, that the two of them were still evolving around each other, but right now it left her wondering if Cat really _was_ up for another round. She doubted it, she herself certainly wasn’t, but she couldn’t very well back down from the challenge, especially since she had opened herself up to it in the first place.

 

Luckily she didn’t have to. Lena was just debating if she could summon the energy to flop on top of Cat—it would be altogether undignified and lack any sexual appeal whatsoever, but if she could get herself in position she could wriggle around a bit and pretend to be doing something until Cat admitted defeat—when Cat’s cell phone went off. Normally Cat would ignore it when they were together like this, as Lena would hers, but this time Lena grasped at the opportunity for a reprieve.

 

“Saved by the bell,” she offered, nodding in the direction of the phone. Instead of reaching for it however, Cat continued to hold her gaze, that smirk still in place and Lena had to fight not to squirm under the attention. She was just beginning to think that she had misjudged the situation when Cat relented, twisting away with an amused huff to grab the device.

 

Lena shifted onto her back, closing her eyes in relief and letting Cat’s voice wash over her. There was an added sharpness to it now, more forceful than it had been before, and it filled her with smug gratification. It wasn’t at all the feeling that tone was supposed to evoke, but she liked being reminded of how powerful her wife was, how powerful _she_ was as well.

 

It might seem shallow to some, if they tried to explain it, how part of what drew them to each other was that power. But it went so much deeper than that. Lena remembered the women who had come before, and while she couldn’t pretend that there weren’t nights where she missed the rush that came with their submission, with them kneeling before her, giving in to her control, that alone had never been enough. Because those women had been too soft, the relationship too unbalanced. It was nothing that could have lasted because Lena would have eventually overwhelmed them. But then there was Cat. Cat who could match her step for step. Cat, who would never bow down before her, just as she never would to Cat, but who could understand her, and who drove her to greater heights.

 

Maybe what she had with Cat wasn’t perfect, maybe there were things they craved that they could never get from each other, but ultimately the things they could provide, the support, the trust, even the competition… ultimately those were worth more. They fell in love because the power they saw in each other was a promise that they were each the one person that the other could never break.

 

The phone call ended and Lena smiled sleepily at Cat’s predictable grumble about how she was going to have to fire her assistant tomorrow. This one had lasted a whole six weeks, which was impressive really, and Lena knew that that would earn the woman a stellar, if secret, recommendation. Cat would be sure to push her into a new, less stressful job before she had time to worry about health insurance or bills, and then spend a few hours bringing fresh, less worthy applicants to tears before settling on a new one.

 

Lena moved to intertwine her fingers lazily with Cat’s, enjoying the sensation of Cat’s thumb brushing over the back of her hand in a small, absent gesture of affection. It couldn’t erase the memory of what it had been like to fall asleep with a more malleable body at her side, one that would curl demurely into her embrace, but Lena wouldn’t trade this for all fleeting pleasures that someone like that could bring.

 

When her brother had been arrested three years ago and the world had turned against the Luthor name, only Cat had stood by her side with unwavering conviction. Even now, with LexCorp rebranded as L-Corp, with all the good she was trying to do, she was still treated with suspicion and scorn. Lena supposed she should take small comfort from the fact that at least Supergirl—the new hero that had shown up half a year ago—hadn’t felt the need to come check up on her, unlike her more established Kryptonian cousin. Cat had interviewed the girl and reported that she didn’t seem to have any animosity towards the Luthor name, but Lena would just be happy if she never had to find that out in person. Most of her long-time employees were finally starting to come around, and she could only imagine what any confrontation with Supergirl, no matter how innocent, would stir up.

 

So yes, the hand in her own was more than enough, because even if it was possible that a world existed where she wasn’t in love with Cat, Cat was still the only person who had never doubted her, and who had never judged her on any merits but her own. The only person that was, until Cat’s new assistant dropped by Lena’s office ten days later to deliver a package and introduced herself with such a genuine, heartfelt smile, that for the first time in three years, Lena meant it when she smiled back in return.

 

//////////////////

 

Cat raised her head, the corners of her lips already lifting as she recognized the familiar cadence of her wife’s step making its way across the bullpen. Almost everyone else had gone home for the evening so the sound carried easily, and it was only a second or two before Lena was close enough for her to read the answering grin. The expression faltered slightly when Lena glanced at the empty assistant desk, but then it slipped into an impish pout as she refocused on Cat.

 

“Don’t tell me you fired that young blonde one, Cat, she was cute. Do you know she blushed the most delightful shade of red when I complimented her cardigan the last time you sent her to my office?”

 

Cat shook her head, standing up from her chair and coming around her desk to greet Lena with a soft kiss. They did this sometimes—if one of them had to work extra late—dropping by for dinner unannounced to make sure that even if it was a working meal, they were still in each other’s company for more than the hectic early hours of the morning. “She doesn’t need any encouragement in that area, Lena, but don’t worry, I haven’t fired her, I just sent her to get me a fresh latte. Aside from her continued horrendous taste in clothes, for which I apparently have you to blame, she’s actually decent at her job. And no-” Cat raised a finger, shushing her wife before she could interject, “if you tell her I said that, I don’t care how ‘cute’ you think her reaction will be. I’ll fire her and you’ll be sleeping in the spare room for a month.”

 

Lena laughed, grabbing Cat’s hand and pulling her down so they were sitting on the sofa side-by-side. “I’m stunned, Cat, you’ve managed to keep the same assistant for over three months. Should I be jealous?”

 

The tone was still light, but Cat detected a hint of a true question behind that last statement, which was… unusual. The two of them might feel jealousy when others looked at their respective partner, but they had never had a problem when it came to their own perceived interest in someone else, knowing that the hunger was fleeting. Falling for each other had been a divergent thing for them. It made sense, in its own way, but they couldn’t help the sides of themselves that were still drawn to something else. Something softer and sweeter than either of them could ever be.

 

Cat hadn’t brought up her attraction to Kara, but she hadn’t needed to for Lena to know, and considering Lena’s face when she had seen the empty desk, it was evident that Cat wasn’t the only one affected by Kara’s charm. If Kara was just someone they had met in passing and not Cat’s employee, the two of them might even have enjoyed a night or two of indulging themselves, fantasizing about her together to highly satisfying results. So while there had been other women that had caused both Lena and Cat to ask that question, this was the first time it was serious.

 

This time it was being asked about someone who had lasted three months.

 

Two months ago, one even, it wouldn’t have been an issue. But after three? Cat had been impressed with Kara ever since she had stood there and claimed that she wasn’t special, but she had been impressed before and let down. Two-and-a-half months was the longest any assistant had ever lasted, and by that time they had been so worn out that their firing had been more of a mercy than anything else, but here Kara was after three still showing no signs of cracking. This time the question was serious because it was becoming increasingly obvious that Kara was far stronger than she appeared. Strong enough that she could bend to Cat’s will time and time again and not break.

 

Cat could shrug this off if she wanted to. Lena still had that smile on her face, giving Cat an out to treat this like the typical teasing, but she wouldn't do that to her. Not when she knew that it was likely that without intervention Kara would continue to work under her in the coming months.

 

“Do you want me to transfer her?” A knot formed in her gut as she spoke. She wouldn’t fire Kara unless she did something wrong—Cat wouldn’t do that to a young woman simply because she couldn’t control her own thoughts—but she could compromise her morals enough to justify a transfer if that was what Lena wanted.

 

“Of course not, Cat.” There was relief there, just knowing that Cat was willing, and Cat felt her own apprehension drain away at those words. It was unnerving how much it meant and she didn’t want to think about whether that was because she had sidestepped the ethical dilemma, or because she would get to keep Kara at her side. “Just, promise you’ll tell me if-”

 

A knock on the door interrupted them, and Cat looked up to see Kara standing there with a drink in each hand, beaming at them happily and almost bounding with excess energy. It was a sight that made her heart flutter, how… beautiful Kara was. How bright and eager to please, how completely unafraid of them she appeared to be. And with Lena at her side, knowing that her wife was thinking the same thing, Cat felt want coil tighter in her chest, dangerous and lovely all at the same time.

 

“Your latte, Miss Grant.” Kara handed it over and then extended the second drink to Lena. “Miss Luthor, I ah, I saw you walk in and I remembered your drink from when I used to work at Noonan’s. They made us memorize the usuals of all the important people who came by.” Alarm crossed Kara’s face as she realized what she had just said, and she rushed on in an attempt to fix it, words tripping over themselves in her haste. “Not that everybody isn’t important, they are, or wait, I mean… you two aren't just like everyone, you’re both incredible and amazing… and… well you’re just-” Cat raised an eyebrow and exchanged a look with Lena, her desire settling into a pleasing backdrop as Kara rambled on. This felt comfortable, somehow, despite the weight of the conversation Kara had walked in on. And besides, Lena was right. When Kara blushed it really was the most delightful shade of red.

 

“Kiera,” she took pity on her, while Lena, for her part, seemed content to let Kara keep going, a bemused smile forming on her lips. Kara stuttered to a halt, shifting from foot to foot in anticipation of the next order. Cat was about to tell her to go home for the day, but then another thought struck, a step she could take to mitigate Lena’s worry.

 

Cat and Lena might share their attraction to Kara, but that was all, because Kara was _Cat’s_ assistant and Cat’s alone. But if the three of them spent time together, maybe the dynamic would start to change, making it easier to see Kara as ‘theirs’ instead of just ‘hers.’ It would take the jealousy out of equation and also allow them to redirect their interest in her back onto each other. It would be fun even, a little joke between them, and then together they could move on.

 

“Call in a delivery to that Italian place on 5th, they know our regular, and put in something for yourself as well.”

 

“Y-you want me?” Part of Cat wished the confusion wasn’t so endearing, but another, much larger part, didn’t mind it at all.

 

“I plan to get home before midnight tonight, and checking the layouts will go faster if you’re here. Unless you have somewhere to be?” Cat’s eyes bore into Kara, watching to make sure she caught the inflection that made it clear that it was truly intended as a question. Cat rarely asked, she just commanded, and Kara knew that, which also meant that she knew the offer was genuine and she was free to take it without repercussions. Cat hoped Kara would stay for her own selfish reasons, but just as she wouldn’t fire the girl without cause, she also wouldn’t demand that Kara play a role—however unknowingly—in this thing between her and Lena.

 

And then Kara was shaking her head and grinning at them again, embarrassment all but gone and Cat had to wonder if perhaps she had just made everything worse.


	2. Chapter Two

Kara’s fingers twisted together in her lap as she watched the street signs flash by, the car carrying her ever closer to her destination. They were going too fast and too slow at the same time, and she couldn’t correct one without giving credence to the other. She could try anyway, struggle to escape from this web of desire, but why would she, when all she really craved was surrender?

 

Half of her was already there, already savoring in the evening ahead, even as the other half was still back in her apartment, standing in front of the mirror and questioning. She wanted to be perfect, even if it was only a dream. She knew it was stupid, obsessing over what to wear, wanting to draw the notice of someone who would never be interested in her, but she couldn’t help herself. She had spent three hours trying on different outfits yesterday after work and another four this afternoon, and only her date showing up to collect her in person was preventing her from being late.

 

“Relax, Kara,” a hand landed on her own, halting her jittery movements, and when Kara glanced to the side she met Susan Vasquez’s calming gaze for a brief moment before the woman turned her attention back to the road. “You’re beautiful. Blue is a good color on you, and I’m sure whoever you’re so nervous about seeing tonight will think so as well.”

 

She flushed, opening her mouth to deny it, but before she could speak Susan stopped at a red light and fixed her with a pointed look.

 

“Come on Kara. I know you. You like cardigans and fluffy bunny slippers. You wear pastel colors whenever possible and you actually think that the costume Winn made you is fashionable. _You_ don’t wear something like _that_ ,” her eyes ran down Kara’s form appreciatively, taking in the dark blue strapless dress that showed off Kara’s shoulders and arms, the dip in the front that hung a bit lower than what she would normally be comfortable with, and the way the fabric hugged her body from every angle, “unless you have a reason. And we both know that I’m not that reason. I’m only here because Alex made a fuss about you attending the L-Corp gala without backup and you asked me before she could insert herself.” There was no malice in those words, and for that Kara was grateful. She truly hadn’t wanted up hurt Susan, or lead her on, but the idea of spending the night with Alex glowering over her shoulder and tensing at every shadow was vastly unappealing.

 

It wasn’t that Susan wasn’t attractive—there was no denying the dashing figure Susan cut in her fitted tux—but she was right. Kara’s mind was somewhere else.

 

She had never had a serious... _anything_ before, anything romantic at least. Anytime she had begun to feel something beyond a casual interest she had been quick to brush it aside, her fear of what an attachment like that could bring holding her back. It was more than just worry about her identity, although that was part of it, but by far the greatest deterrent was her certainty that she would break anyone who got too close, anyone who tried to share her burden.

 

The happy, soft face she showed to those around her wasn’t a lie, exactly—after losing everything Kara could no longer look at her new world without feeling wonder and an ever present thirst for life—but it was only part of who she was. There was more there, underneath the smiles, more that came out in nightmares of her planet burning and millions of screams drowned by the vacuum of space. There was more still that lurked in an anger she couldn’t always suppress, and in the concentration it took each and every day not to crush someone with a touch.

 

When Kara had first started working for Cat she had known that a minor attraction was inevitable. Cat was beautiful, brilliant, and above all, when Kara was around Cat she didn’t have to worry about her own power. Cat gave commands and Kara followed them, slipping into a world where she could trust Cat to guide her, to hold the power for her when it became too much. It was almost a contradiction, how turning her power over to someone else could make her stronger, but that was what it was. When Kara felt like she might crack open from everything that was inside of her, being Cat’s assistant released the pressure and set her free.

 

Kara had felt the pull when meeting Lena as well.

 

Maybe the Luthor name should have given her pause—Clark had had a thing or two to say about her working for a woman who was married to Lex’s sister—but even before she had met Lena she had read all about the technology L-Corp was developing to help people, and Kara had admired her. She also knew what it was like to be tied to a name, to be judged for that before your own actions, and she refused to do that to someone else. So for that first meeting with Lena she had tossed aside the whispers, deciding to discover for herself who Lena really was. And the woman she had found had the same drive as Cat, provided the same relief, and yet held an allure that was all her own.

 

Kara had nursed crushes on them each individually during the first three months of her employment, but that was all they had been. Crushes, things that would build for a short time before her fear would cut them off. That was how these things were supposed to work, how she expected them to play out, except that then… then there had been that night and everything had changed.

 

_Four Months Ago:_

 

_She was grinning, a lot. Cat had asked her to stay and she was grinning and bouncing on her heels and not at all worried that she might lose control. She had made an impact, an impression, and now as her reward she would get to stay and show them…_

 

_Them. As in plural. As in both._

 

_Her brain caught up to the situation and she froze as reality set in, only her eyes moving as they flitted back and forth, unsure as to where to rest; on Cat, back straight and surveying Kara like the queen she was, or on Lena, who had settled back into the comfort of the sofa with a subtle smirk whose inspiration Kara could only guess._

 

_Cat had asked her to stay with both of them, together in the same place for an undetermined amount of time. One on one they were each… well, they were each what they were, but like this? She could take down monsters and robots and aliens, but Cat and Lena were each capable of flustering her just by existing. She wasn’t sure she could survive them both._

 

_Now would probably be a really great time to stop grinning._

 

_“Chop chop then, Kiera.” Cat dismissed her with a wave of her hand, jump starting Kara’s body, which was not without its own difficulties._

 

_She barely avoided tripping over her own feet as she bolted out of the office, not sure if she was running to escape from those two women, or because she needed to get back to them faster. Either way, she made it to her chair in relative safety, but just as she was congratulating herself for remembering how legs worked, the chair slid out from her under her as she tried to sit down. She caught herself at the last second, but it was a near thing, and from behind her she heard Lena chuckle. It should have felt malicious—she had been laughed at enough during her first few years on Earth to recognize the correlation between her clumsiness and that sound—but somehow, this time, it didn’t._

 

_She could picture the expression on Lena’s face, the dancing eyes and the curve of her lips, and maybe it was just because she had struggled not to stare at those same lips the few times she had met Lena already, but she couldn't imagine them forming a genuine sneer. Oh they were capable of it, she was sure, but not over something like this. So the look, it would be more amusement than mocking, more… delighting in the revelation that this was who Kara was, than dismissing her for it._

 

_Or maybe that was just what she wanted to believe and nothing more._

 

_She reached for the phone before her urge to check and see if she was right could eradicate her self-control. The number spilled from her fingertips easily, and she was glad for the hours she’d spent memorizing the contact information for all the places Cat’s previous assistant had called more than three times. It had proved useful, and when Cat had realized what she had done, well… the faint approval on Cat’s face had sent shivers down Kara’s spine._

 

_A man picked up and Kara rambled off the order without thinking, her mind still back in that office. When the call ended, she spun in her chair, and her breath caught in her throat as she found two sets of eyes watching her with intensity. They seemed, surprised, almost, maybe even intrigued? She had just ordered food, so what...?_

 

_“Kiera!”_

 

_She reacted instantly to the call, grabbing her notebook and pen and moving to follow Cat’s command._

 

_“Miss Grant?” She forced herself to stand straight, not to give away how intoxicating it felt to have them look at her like that, and how terrifying as well._

 

_“I didn’t know you could speak Italian.”_

 

_“I-” She stopped, playing back the phone conversation in her head. Kryptonians had a knack for languages, and aside from the eight alien languages she had spoken before coming to Earth, she had also picked up a sizable collection of human ones over the years. She had been distracted while placing the call, and it had just come naturally to her, responding to the Italian greeting in kind. And of course they had heard because Cat had purposely designed the floor space so that with Cat’s doors open, any noise from inside the office would be dampened—you could overhear if people were talking, but not the specifics—while the voices from the bullpen would be amplified and flow directly into Cat’s ears._

 

_“I forgot?”_

 

_Lena laughed again, and this time, seeing the gleam in those eyes and flash of teeth, Kara knew that her earlier guess had been correct. There was nothing disdainful in that sound._

 

_Cat, for her part, kept quiet, using silence like a weapon. Kara understood what Cat was doing, the technique to make another talk in order to fill the space, but she gave in anyway. It was so easy to give in to Cat Grant._

 

_“I speak a couple of languages so I don’t always notice when I switch back and forth.”_

 

_“And how many, pray tell, is a couple?” Cat’s eyes narrowed, daring Kara to impress her._

 

_She fiddled with her glasses nervously, trying to focus. How many languages was it normal for humans to speak again? She should know this. Any other time she would, but right now…_

 

_She just needed to pick a number. Any number._

 

 _“Nine.” That was good right? Nine was three sets of three, and she liked three. She_ really _liked three. So nine was… her heart sank. Nine was far too many._

 

_Cat hummed, sitting back and looking pleased with herself, although Kara didn’t know why that would be. Maybe because she had found a semi-competent assistant? Kara liked the idea that her personal accomplishments could make Cat proud._

 

 _“You must have a_ very _talented tongue, Kara,” Kara’s eyes widened at Lena’s words, both praise and suggestion at the same time. But no, that was wrong. Lena wouldn’t be… Lena was nice, complimenting her and smiling all the time. And sure, occasionally Lena said things like this, things that hinted at flirtation, but Lena didn’t really mean it that way. Why would she, when she had Cat?_

 

_“I, um…”_

 

_“Well, maybe not so much right now, but I’m sure with a bit more pointed direction that could be fixed. You do seem to do well when given firm instruction.” Kara glanced at Cat quickly, hoping that her boss’s face would tell her how she was supposed to interpret this. She searched for any sign of annoyance, of anger, but instead Cat had softened, lips turning up in an almost smile._

 

_It lasted only a moment, but it was long enough to confirm that there really wasn’t anything behind Lena’s words, and then Cat was slipping into something else, something… darker, full of promise. And that had an appeal all of its own._

 

_“I’m going to need a list of those languages, Kara.”_

 

_“I- yes, Miss Grant. Right away.” Kara lifted her pen to her notepad, staring down and willing her hand to start writing. It did, thankfully, and she wrote down the first nine, human languages that came into her head, tearing off the paper and handing it to Cat when she finished._

 

_Cat read it over, nodding to herself before passing it to Lena for her perusal._

 

 _“Very well, Kiera. Keep this particular skill to yourself from now on, and put yourself on the schedule for the meeting with the Russian investors next week. I would be very interested to know what they’re always carrying on about so passionately behind my back.” There was that approval again, the same look Cat had given her when she had demonstrated herself with the memorization, only this time more of Cat’s emotion was showing through. And when Lena finished reading the list and looked up, their joint gaze fell across her again, and she realized that it was because of_ this _. Because they were together._

 

_In the presence of her wife, the line between public and private, professional and… personal, blurred. And the same was true, Kara was sure, for Lena as well. It meant that the people in the room with her right now were more than she had seen before, more than anything her mind could conjure up on its own. She felt trapped between the two of them, Lena’s amusement and Cat’s calculating stare, their similarities and contrasts reflecting and building on each other exponentially until there was nothing left except the three of them. Nothing left except for Cat, and Kara, and Lena._

 

_Something shifted inside of her, light breaking through a wall where it had no right to be, and when it fell on the other side, Kara had no other defense prepared to hold it at bay._

 

The light turned green and Susan refocused on driving, not pressuring Kara to speak. She made no move to pull her hand away, however, letting Kara know that it was ok to talk if she wanted. And she did want to talk—not about her feelings for Cat and Lena, that was too much of a fantasy for her to say out loud—but for the past year Susan’s voice on the comm had been a pillar of support for Supergirl and maybe this one time it could be that for Kara Danvers as well.

 

“It’s just…” she paused, wanting to get this right. “I thought Alex was starting to trust my judgement. I know she’s spent a lot of time watching out for her naïve little sister, but I’ve been Supergirl for a while now. Alex has been training me to fight and to assess situations, and she seemed fine when I told her that Miss Luthor comes by the office sometimes. She even acted like she believed me when I said that Miss Luthor is nothing like her brother. But then I mention that I’m going to the L-Corp gala and she freaks out.” Kara stared down at the clasped hands in her lap, blinking away frustrated tears.

 

In her peripheral vision Susan nodded, frowning slightly in consideration. “You have to cut Alex some slack. She’s never met Lena Luthor and it’s one thing to know her very _alien_ sister has been around her in an everyday workplace setting, quite another to hear that she’s received a personal invitation to the launch of some mystery product. I believe you when you say it won’t be dangerous, and for what it’s worth, Alex believes that you believe that, but she’s still your big sister. She’s always going to try to protect you, even if you don’t think you need protection.”

 

Kara sighed, accepting Susan’s words. Honestly, she didn’t even know why this was getting to her so much. Alex was always over-protective, and for a long time Kara had needed that protection desperately. When the sights and sounds of this world had been too overwhelming, it was Alex who had been her shelter. Alex who had guided her through the darkness, and Alex who… Alex who had always been the exception to Kara’s rule about getting too close.

 

And that was the answer, wasn’t it? Because for the first time ever she had met people that she wanted to share just as much of herself with, maybe even more, as she did with Alex. Part of her felt like she was betraying Alex, in a way, after Alex had given up so much in her life for Kara. They were working on it, and Kara knew that there was a cop, Maggie, who had been drawing Alex’s attention as of late, but even so, so much of Alex’s existence was still centered around her sister. With all that Alex gave her, Kara felt like it should be enough, and yet now she couldn’t stop herself from wanting more. She was finding excuses to be upset with Alex because that made it easier to ignore the fact that Alex _wasn’t_ enough. Not anymore.

 

Alex may have shown her that a single human could be there for her, but while Alex hadn’t broken under what Kara had given her, she had bent. She had done so willingly, but Kara couldn’t risk it with another person. Only then she had seen Cat and Lena together, and where her fear should have been there to protect them from her, instead she found it crumbling more and more as each day passed.

 

They were days that showed her that Cat was caring, in her own way. After that first dinner—when Cat had observed how quickly Kara demolished her food and caught her looking mournfully at her empty plate—Cat was always sure to tell Kara to order extra. When there had been an earthquake that rocked National City, Cat had called Kara four times in the first ten minutes. Ostensibly it was because there was some document that Cat had insisted that she _needed_ right that instant, but Kara hadn’t missed the relieved intake of breath when she had picked up the phone. And then there was the time when one of the photographers had tried to blame Kara for a lost negative even though it had never been in her possession. Cat had been upset with him already, but when he had made fun of Kara for her stuttered protests, Cat had fired him without a second thought.

 

And Lena... the days had shown her that Lena was playful. Cat could be playful as well, when Lena brought it out of her, but Lena was much more overt about it. Where Cat took care of her and protected her, Lena lifted Kara up. Lena joked with her and offered compliments, rolling her eyes when she felt Cat was too harsh even as Cat’s demand for excellence was constantly pushing Kara to be better, to go further. If Cat used ice to shield herself, hiding herself behind a mask so no one could see the extent of her feeling, Lena used fire and fought against all the world threw at her with passion and determination. And, while neither Cat or Lena were enough individually, together… well, together Cat and Lena were an unstoppable force, which meant that Kara’s fear could no longer be an immovable object.

 

So when Lena had casually handed her the invitation earlier in the week she hadn’t been able to help herself. Logically, she knew that Lena had only invited her to inflate the attendance numbers, but for the briefest moment she had allowed herself to imagine that there was more to it—that the way Lena had bitten her lip while waiting for Kara’s answer, the smile that had followed when Kara had said yes—that it meant something. It was just wistful thinking on her part, but sometimes she let herself pretend.

 

_Two Months Ago:_

 

_It had been a grueling day. Four containment cells failed at the DEO and Kara had spent her afternoon rushing around the city trying to track the escaped prisoners down. Cat had been out of the office for various meeting all day which was the only reason that Kara’s repeated absences had gone unnoticed, although Kara would almost have preferred having to come up with excuses if it meant she had gotten to see Cat just once. Or Lena. If only she had had to deliver something to Lena._

 

_She diverted into an empty bathroom on the way back to her desk, sighing at the dark smudge of soot across her cheek, and her shoulders slumped when the faucet broke off in her hand. This was why she had had to leave her previous job. Coming out as Supergirl had been liberating it a way, but it also brought her power much closer to the surface, making it harder to control, and after one too many broken appliances, Kara had quit before they could fire her. So far she hadn’t had that problem at CatCo, finding it easy to reign herself in under Cat’s gaze, but today had been more extreme than most, and Cat had been away._

 

_She pulled her glasses down her nose, securing the handle back into place with a quick blast of her heat-vision. She would put in an anonymous call to maintenance tomorrow to make sure she hadn’t damaged the pipes, but for now she moved on to a different sink and gingerly turned the handle. This time it worked, nothing broken, but the tension was still thrumming through her and she knew she would have to be careful._

 

_A few minutes later she was almost back at her desk when she saw them, only now realizing how late it had gotten. She would have to come up with an excuse after all, but it didn’t matter. That wasn’t enough to stop the flood of relief from washing over her at the sight._

 

_“Miss Grant, I’m sorry, I-”_

 

_“Kiera, on the desk. Now.”_

 

_Kara stumbled, her world stopping for a moment as she was thrown back to a dream she had had earlier in the week. A dream where Cat had uttered those exact same words while Lena had stalked closer with an expression of rapt hunger on her face. It was the same expression Lena had now, and it matched perfectly with the sharp snap of command in Cat’s voice._

 

_A dark flush colored Kara’s cheeks and she ducked her head to hide it, even as her step forward was almost bursting with excitement. This wasn’t happening, she knew it wasn’t, but even the fantasy was enough ease the remaining stress in her body and replace it with something else. As she reached the desk her eyes fell on the unopened delivery containers, and suddenly the tone, the look, they made much more sense. Cat and Lena really were hungry, just not for her._

 

_“The food, Kara?” Kara began to gather it up, but she paused to glance back when Lena kept talking. “I’m starving, and if you don’t hurry up, I might not be quite so discerning about what I sink my teeth in-”_

 

_Lena cut off with a yelp as Cat’s fingers pinched her thigh, shifting to glare at her wife while Cat, for her part, picked up some papers from the table in front of her, seemingly oblivious to the mock anger._

 

_“Language dear,” Cat tutted. “We have an impressionable mind in the room. Watch yourself or I’ll do it for you.”_

 

 _That was… new, and her head spun as she tried to make sense of it. Did it mean there_ was _some flirtation in Lena’s words? That all this time… But no. Cat still didn’t seem like she was actually upset, so there still couldn’t be any intent behind it. Cat must have just realized how it could sound and decided to intervene before Lena embarrassed herself. That was nice… sweet even, for all that Cat’s approach was not._

 

_“I-” Lena started, only to be interrupted again as Cat raised a finger._

_“I’m working now, Lena, hush.”_

 

_Lena opened her mouth to argue, but Cat tisked, one sharp click and Lena relented. Slouching back in a huff._

 

_And Kara found herself smiling, truly smiling for what felt like the first time that day. Ever since that night two months ago she had gotten to see more of this, the competitive, yet caring dynamic between them, and they were moments she treasured, even if Cat never allowed the slip for long. Besides, they had waited for her when there was no reason to. Cat should have been annoyed at her for being away from her desk, but they had still waited, and Cat hadn’t even asked her why she had been gone. It felt… safe. It felt whole._

 

_Kara smiled wider._

 

_Seeing her reaction, Lena turned her glare on Kara, but there was a twitch in her lips as she tried to suppress a smile of her own. “If you tell anyone I let her get away with that, I have all sorts of ways to make you regret it.”_

 

_Before Kara could respond, Cat beat her to it. “Yes, yes, you’re very threatening, Lena. Now Kiera, the food?”_

 

“We’re here,” Susan’s voice drew her back to the present, and Kara jumped when a valet opened the door unexpectedly.

 

She had barely gotten out of the car when Susan was at her side, offering her arm gallantly and preparing to lead her into the building. But Kara held them back. She had been drifting in the car, consumed by her own thoughts and selfishly forgetting that there was something she had left unsaid.

 

“You were wrong, you know,” Susan looked at her in surprise, unsure as to what Kara was referring. “I may have asked someone initially to keep Alex from worrying, but I asked _you_ because you’re important to me. And if…” she trailed off.

 

What was she trying to say? ‘And if I didn’t have baggage,’ ‘if I didn’t think I would break you,’ ‘if I had never met _them_ ,’? Susan had been one of those crushes she had locked away before giving it a chance. And here, now, feeling the warmth of Susan’s body against her side, seeing how the lights around the entrance brought out hidden flecks of green in Susan’s eyes, Kara felt a sadness for the could have been.

 

But already it was sliding away, her too sharp hearing focusing in on Cat and Lena’s heartbeats, her own speeding up at knowing they were near. They would be dazzling, she knew, and so far beyond her that it was painful even to hope, but even so she had worn this dress because maybe, just for a moment, they would see her and want her as well.

 

It almost made her feel guilty, how badly she wanted to impose herself on them, but that guilt wasn’t strong enough to make her turn away. It wouldn’t even be strong enough later on tonight, when she was home alone in bed, to keep her from picturing them together and touching herself until she screamed.

 

Susan was still waiting, but finally Kara shook her head, knowing she’d never be able to finish the sentiment. She seemed to understand, squeezing Kara’s hand before leaning in to kiss her cheek.

 

“It’s ok, Kara, I promise.” And then Susan was pulling Kara inside and she lost herself in the sight within.


	3. Chapter Three

Cat was lurking. It shouldn’t have been possible for someone of her social stature to go unnoticed, but her years as the Queen of All Media had done nothing to dampen the skills she had learned as an investigative reporter. She could lurk with the best of them, or rather, she _was_ the best of them, because she was Cat Grant, and she would accept no less.

 

She had entered the venue through a side door, sticking to the shadows and making her way around the room until she found the perfect vantage point, and soon she was tucked away behind a decorative pillar and its accompanying plant. Cat loved the power that came with her usual presence, how people would scamper around her, how a snap of her fingers could render them either speechless or in tears, but there was no denying that there was a power in this as well. From here, she could look out at the hall at her leisure and with almost complete confidence that no one would spot her in turn—not unless they were specifically searching, and not unless they knew her well enough to guess that this was something she would do.

 

A smirk crossed her lips as she watched Maxwell Lord drain his third glass of wine in ten minutes, well on his way to becoming inebriated. It was hardly the scoop of the century, and if it ever came to it, Cat had far more damaging material on him than simply catching him out of sorts, but she wasn’t here for a story. She was here for Lena, and that was what mattered.

 

She was here because Lena had fought with everything she had to get to this place, and despite Lord’s best efforts to smear her name and company to block the competition, he had failed to bring her down. Cat felt a gleeful vindication on Lena’s behalf as Lord grabbed his fourth glass. He would be a mess by the time he left, and when he saw what Lena had in store it would be the final nail in the proverbial coffin. L-Corp was on the rise, Lord Technologies was a thing of the past, and Lena had done it all on her own.

 

That was the other reason she was lurking instead of standing in the limelight. She was lurking because this was Lena’s moment, and for one evening Cat could take a step back.

 

She moved on from Lord, sharp eyes darting around the room to take in all Lena had accomplished in just three short years. The event was spectacular, the location upscale and trendy, the decor and hors d’oeuvres classy and not too overstated, and most importantly, there were guests. There were so many guests.

 

People were always going to attend, of course, but there was a difference between the bare minimum—the reporters who didn’t have a choice and the one or two ‘investors’ with no real intention of putting up more money—and this, the space nearly packed with big names from the medical, financial, and philanthropic fields. Not all of them were here to be supportive, there were quite a few like Lord in the room, but they had come all the same which was more than half the battle. And for every dissenter, there were two more that had decided that Lena Luthor might just be worth the risk.

 

“Cat,” a hand landed on her back, brushing over the skin her dress left exposed, and Cat’s smirk softened into a smile. She had hoped Lena would find her here, that they would have a minute alone before everything really got started, but she hadn’t been sure Lena would be able to tear herself away from the preparations.

 

“Yes, Lena? Did you need something?” She kept her tone bored, but the way she was leaning into the touch wouldn’t fool anybody, and when Lena’s hand drifted to tug at Cat’s waist, she gave in to the pull after only a second's hesitation. They had arrived separately, Lena rushing out hours earlier with her outfit still sealed away in a garment bag, while Cat, for her part, hadn’t even begun to get ready until later. All day she had been looking forward to seeing the new dress Lena had purchased, to seeing Lena’s response to her own attire as well, so the pause was just for show. Even if this was Lena’s night, Cat couldn’t just hand over everything, after all.

 

Lena’s gown was a deep purple, cut in a way that wasn’t too revealing or flashy, but that allowed the woman underneath to shine through. It accentuated Lena’s natural assets, and she had so many assets. Cat should know, she had spent countless hours cataloging all of them. She couldn’t stop herself from smirking again thinking about that, and when her gaze fell across Lena’s face, she didn’t try to hide her desire. It was an expression that was reflected back at her, filling Cat with a smug warmth.

 

“You look… adequate, I suppose,” Cat offered, waving her hand in a perfunctory manner, enjoying how Lena’s mouth twitched at the perceived challenge.

 

“As do you,” Lena’s hand was still on Cat’s waist, trailing with tantalizing slowness over her hips, and her eyes flicked down Cat’s body again in suggestion. Cat reached for her, but just as she did, Lena smiled coyly and took two steps back, demanding that Cat either admit her attraction by giving chase, or let her get away.

 

She opted to glare, pretending to be more annoyed than she actually was, and knowing that there would be plenty of time to make Lena pay for the mockery later.

 

Lena chuckled, shaking her head to break the game and returning to her previous proximity, neither of them willing to take this too far in a public space. Plus, there was the larger issue of why they were here, which was evident from the way Lena’s laugh was stretched thin with nerves. Lena was doing a good job of covering it up—the playful actions, the sly smile—but it was there.

 

Cat wanted to tell her that everything would be alright, that there was no one trying to sabotage her, but that would only call attention to it and that wasn’t what Lena needed. What she needed was a distraction, and Cat knew just the thing.

 

“Is she here yet?” Cat spun around, drawing Lena with her so that both of them were facing the hall again, but her focus was on Lena. Cat did want the answer—the way her heart sped up at her query gave that much away—but this thing with Kara wasn’t real, and Cat could wait.

 

The dinners over the last four months had gradually become more frequent, and during that time it had become easy to see Kara as something that was shared between them now. This was the last thing they needed to settle it, a night where Kara appeared in Lena’s realm instead of Cat’s while the three of them were together. And it meant that after this, Kara would never be someone that could tear them apart, not unless something drastic happened to cause an unforeseen shift.

 

It also meant that after this, they could start to move on, because there would be nowhere else for the attraction to go. They had rules to make sure that their interest would remain, if not entirely carefree, then at least mostly physical. And an attraction like that, well, it wasn’t sustainable on its own.

 

It was why everything between all of them before this had consistently been confined to a working meal. For Cat, work made it impossible to forget that Kara was her employee, someone she could never touch, and while Lena didn’t have that restriction, it still ensured that neither of them could learn anything personal about her. This gala was a deviation, but it was important for their progress to bring Kara into this space, and it was so public and busy that the chances of it being a liability were low.

 

The boundary was also there in other ways, protections Cat placed on her own mind. She let herself want, but never anything concrete. She never permitted herself to picture what the three of them would really look like together, or how it would feel to have Kara in her grasp. And if maybe she slipped up in her behavior sometimes, forgetting to stay quite so aloof, that didn’t mean anything; not when she was always so quick to rein herself in.

 

Lena wasn’t as discerning, indulging herself more overtly, but it was a shallow flirtation that never delved deeper. And as long as Kara remained oblivious, as long as she didn’t reach back, it was all under control.

 

Because Kara was oblivious, Cat would have brought this to an end right away if she thought otherwise. Yes, Kara reacted to Lena’s tactics, becoming beautifully flustered and adorable, and yes, she preened so prettily when receiving any hint of Cat’s approval, but those were passive things—she never once tried to engage back. And if Kara did realize something on any minute level, it wasn’t enough to make her think that it was about _her_ , not really.

 

Cat was glad for that, for the most part. Glad that it afforded them the opportunity to do this. But it also made Cat want to break her rules, to grab Kara and show her that she was special, that she was…

 

“Cat,” Lena hissed at her, interrupting her inner contemplations. “By the door.”

 

Cat was still watching Lena, but at Lena’s words she turned her head and a second later she found herself moving forward involuntarily. Lena came with her, neither of them hidden away anymore, and a tendril of fear crept into her thoughts. That shouldn’t have happened, she hadn’t given chase when Lena had tried to provoke her earlier, so there was no reason for either of them to do so now. Not unless… yes, that was it. Both of them were still flush with want from the teasing, and Kara had just provided the extra push, that was all there was to it. Cat was vaguely aware that her argument sounded heavily contrived, but she clung to it anyway, shoving the fear aside in favor of more agreeable things.

 

Like the way Kara’s dark blue dress was fluttering around her legs, highlighting firm calf muscles that Cat had had no idea could be so enticing, and where typically Kara’s shirts were buttoned high at the neckline, tonight there was no such modesty. It was only with great effort that she was able to keep herself from staring at Kara’s chest, not that moving on gave her much of a reprieve. The slope of Kara’s neck was begging to be kissed, to be marked, and those arms… Kara worked out, that much was clear, and while there was a definite appeal to the adorable Kara Danvers that she saw in her office, this one was… “Stunning.”

 

Cat’s breath caught in her throat as Kara lifted her head and met Cat’s eyes. There was no way she could have heard her, but Cat let herself pretend for a moment that the faint flush coloring Kara’s cheeks was because she had. How satisfying it would be, just once, to say something like to Kara and to see her response. But that was getting into dangerous territory, a yearning too specific to be allowed, and Cat was both relieved and disappointed when a group of people stepped in between them.

 

By the time the group had passed on, Kara was no longer looking in their direction, but rather, laughing at something the woman next to her had said. No, not just next to her. _Touching_ her.

 

In an instant everything twisted, pleasure and desire warping into an ugliness that set her body ablaze. An angry snarl formed behind her lips and her hands balled into fists. She couldn’t think, blood was rushing through her ears and she was made dizzy by the flood of possessive jealousy tearing through her system. Cat hadn’t even noticed the second person at first—everything but Kara dissolving into a backdrop—but now all she could see was how that woman held Kara’s arm in her own, fingers lightly caressing bare skin.

 

They had known Kara might bring a date, but the abstract possibility had nothing on this reality, and Cat did not understand. A _need_ , so intense as to bring physical anguish, surged forth from a million tiny pockets in her mind, and the suddenness of the onslaught was further ripping her from her mooring. All she wanted to do was race across the room and lay waste to anyone who stood in her path, and the fact that she couldn’t, that she had no right... Cat had never felt more powerless.

 

“Who’s that?” The distress in Lena’s voice cut through the din and Cat made herself turn. Lena’s eyes were narrowed into a dark glare, her body practically vibrating with the same passion and anger in Cat’s own.

 

Everything was wrong.

 

Maybe it wasn’t a date, maybe it was just a friend, but that seemed unlikely when the other woman looked like that, hair cropped short and suit hugging her frame. Cat fully acknowledged that she was stereotyping, but she didn’t care about being politically correct when that woman was touching _their_ Kara.

 

“Lena.” She thrust her own hurt down, reaching for her wife and running a finger over Lena’s arm in an attempt to sooth her and draw her attention away from Kara. “Lena!” She tried again, this time digging her nail into the flesh at Lena’s elbow. “It’s none of our business. You know this.”

 

Lena continued to stare for another beat, but Cat increased the pressure and dragged her back.

 

“I know that. I’ve know it all along, but god… I just didn’t think…” she trailed off, and Cat clenched her jaw against the pain on Lena’s face. Lena must have seen the emotion in her own as well because something shifted and she was abruptly more present, her hand coming up to rest on Cat’s waist again. “When did it stop being fun, Cat? We were just playing, so how…?”

 

A server passed in front of them and Cat’s gaze fell on the one thing that was out of place amongst the food, potstickers that didn’t belong at an event like this. It was so small, such a minor thing, and she wondered if Lena had even realized what she was doing when she put them on the menu. Small things like that were so easy to ignore, and they had chipped away piece by piece until now it was too late.

 

They had been so caught up in maintaining the rules that Kara’s full influence over them had slipped in unseen. While Cat had been keeping herself from letting her imagination become too vivid—from imagining how Kara would look flushed in ecstasy, how she would sound as they took her, if she would beg and shiver and moan—Cat had missed how Kara’s laugh could make her heart jump, how her smile had replaced the latte in importance to her morning. She had missed how worry always built in her gut when Kara disappeared without explanation for too long, or her edge of panic when Kara hadn’t picked up right away after the earthquake. She had missed the trust she felt when Kara accompanied her to a meeting, and the awe whenever Kara stood up to her, whether just switching out one of her whiskey decanters with M&Ms or questioning her decision to cover a juicy scandal instead of a meaningful story.

 

While Cat had been watching herself to keep from learning anything about Kara, she had missed how it wasn’t just Kara that sought approval, but how Cat herself had started to crave it in return; and how that pushed her to be better, exactly as Lena had been doing for so many years. Cat had been determined to keep this superficial, discounting anything that wasn’t, but Kara was more than a list of unknown facts, and all the little moments had rendered Cat’s walls into nothing more than an illusion.

 

“Because she’s exceptional,” it was the only answer she had.  

 

“Miss Luthor?” Lena’s assistant materialized, a surreal counterpoint to the chaos. “We’re ready for your speech.”

 

“Go,” Cat released her grip on Lena, nodding in the direction of the podium. The ground might be crumbling beneath them, but the world was still turning. “You’ve been working on this for years. This is your time.” Leaning in she added, “we’ll figure everything else out tomorrow, but for now, just remember why you’re here, and know that whatever else comes, I am so incredibly honored to be by your side.”

 

Lena rested her forehead against Cat’s in a rare show of public weakness, breathing in deeply and centering herself as much as she could. When Lena pulled away the smile that was on her face was more manufactured than it should have been, but it would hold.

 

And then Lena was leaving, standing tall and striding across the hall to take center stage, and Cat knew every one of her last words had been true.

 

Twenty-five minutes later the audience erupted into applause, Cat foregoing her usual dignity and clapping loudest of all. The new medical nanobot technology would save lives at a fraction of the cost, repairing bones and muscle and organs with a speed and precision that until now had been just a dream. It would still need to be manipulated, guided by a trained physician into doing the right thing, but with this doctors in war zones could treat five patients in the time it would normally take to treat one.

 

Cat was the first to congratulate Lena after the speech ended, staying in place as Lena was swarmed by well-wishers, and whereas before they had looked to Kara as a distraction from the events, now it was those same events that were providing the distraction from Kara. It didn’t last, it couldn’t, but it was a mercy that when next they saw Kara, she was alone.

 

Kara was hovering off to the side, and seeing her waiting for permission like that, offering a smile and shy wave, Cat couldn’t help but think that it should be impossible to be that lovely and soft at the same time. Kara retained all the allure that the dress had provided earlier, but now Cat could see the individual strands of hair just beginning to break free of the careful braids—disrupting the perfection of the image yet somehow making it better, transforming Kara from a sculpture into a living thing. She was gorgeous, and while people like Cat and Lena wielded beauty it like a weapon, Kara was earnest and bashful… _safe_ , for all that she was causing them harm.

 

“Kara,” Lena’s voice betrayed none of her turmoil, although Cat knew it was still very much there.

 

“Miss Luthor, Miss Grant,” Kara stepped over, her smile widening and Cat was struck by how Kara was so completely genuine. She wasn’t trying to get in on the project, or ingratiate herself with either of them for personal gain, she was just here for them. Just here because she cared.

 

Kara started asking questions, most of which Cat had heard already, but she could see that Lena’s answers this time were different, more energized. Kara’s admiration and belief in Lena’s work was evident, and under that kind of attention, Lena flourished.   

 

Cat knew it was temporary, that this balance would shatter when the other woman returned, but when her mind drifted towards the dangerous place again, she let herself go. The revelation had proved that it was already too late to avoid getting hurt, and even though she had promised never to cross that line, it seemed easier now, knowing that Kara was taken.

 

Picturing what they could have would obliterate any feeble defenses she had left, but while it wouldn’t keep her from falling harder, seeing how happy Kara had looked when she had been laughing on that woman’s arm meant that at least there was no room for hope. And as long as there was no hope, Cat could still trust that eventually this would get better.  

 

The scene in front of her blurred and suddenly they were home, in _their_ home, one for all three of them. Cat and Kara were sitting on the couch watching Lena pace, hands animated as she told them about her current project. Kara leaned in, getting too caught up in Lena’s excitement to notice her balance, but just as she was about to topple off the couch, Cat snuck an arm around her waist and tugged her back. She slid over as she did so, securing Kara against her side and enjoying the sigh that escaped Kara as she snuggled closer. At that, Lena stopped, a glint forming in her eyes, and from there… Cat shook her head.

 

“Kara, there you are!” The other woman appeared, tucking a phone away into her pocket as her other hand landed naturally on Kara’s arm as if it belonged. The injury that had dulled over the course of the evening, becoming a constant ache rather than a stabbing pain, soared back into sharp focus. It brought a hate with it, unjustified and irrelevant and utterly out of Cat’s control.

 

“Susan,” something darkened in Kara’s aura, and her voice contained a hint of steel that Cat had only seen in rare moments. “Was that Alex? Is something-”

 

“Just a check in, don’t worry, everything’s fine.” The woman, _Susan_ , rushed to cut Kara off, her eyes darting to Cat and Lena with wary calculation.

 

Cat met the gaze head on, lifting her chin and forcing a smile to stay on her lips. She wanted to pull Kara away, to protect her from whatever was making her worry, to ask what was going on that required such a tone, but Kara had already lightened again. Whatever it was was gone, driven away by Susan’s words, and Cat felt a mixture of further jealousy that someone else had been the one to bring Kara relief, even as she was also thankful that they had.

 

“Miss Grant, Miss Luthor, this is my friend, Susan. She works with my sister,” Kara was beaming at them all now, looking around as if thinking they could all be fast friends. It was an optimism that was as appealing for how honest it was, as it was devastating for the way her words rang with truth.

 

The next minute passed on autopilot, a few exchanged pleasantries before a representative from Wayne Enterprises came over and Kara and Susan took their leave. As the man talked on, something about Lena leading them into the future, Cat didn’t hear, her mind entirely taken up by the sound of ‘friend’ playing on repeat.

 

Hope blossomed in her chest, cruel in its fabrication but no longer preventable in any way.


	4. Chapter Four

Lena watched Cat stare blankly into her third cup of coffee, unease growing with each passing second. She knew that look, so controlled and expressionless that even those who called Cat an Ice Queen in her everyday life would notice a difference. It had been a long time since she had last seen it, not since Cat had realized that she was falling in love with Lena, and observing it now... it sent a shiver down Lena’s spine. It wasn’t healthy, wasn’t right, but Cat had learned from an early age that in order to survive, she could not show weakness. Rather than risking any hint of her emotions leaking to the outside world, when things became to be too intense, she simply shut down her exterior responses, becoming as cold on the outside as she was burning on the inside.

 

They had almost lost each other because of this back then, and the only reason they hadn’t was because when Cat had drawn away, Lena had clung harder, had fought for Cat past the point of rational concern.

 

Growing up as the unwanted Luthor daughter, a beloved child only in public, Lena had needed to hold on to true affection whenever it presented itself. Lex was the only one who had really loved her in her adolescence, but when she and Cat had gotten together, he was already beginning his decent into madness. He wouldn’t be completely gone for another few years, but even if Lena hadn’t wanted to admit it to herself, she had seen the rejection coming. So when she had recognized what she and Cat had, that it was _real_ , she hadn’t been willing to let that go.

 

Lena knew now how lucky she had been. If the person she had wanted had been anyone else, and they had likewise started to pull away, there was a chance she would have gone too far. It didn’t excuse her—she could blame her scarred childhood all she wanted but nothing would erase the fact that she had come dangerously close to twisting what they had into something wrong. So she had been lucky, because Cat hadn’t wanted to run, it was just that she didn’t know any other way.

 

It was why they were so good together. Neither of them were poster models of mental health, and they would each be the last person to defend themselves, but over time they had evened each other out, discovering how to be better with and for each other.

 

“Cat,” Lena tried, leaning forward and attempting to catch Cat’s eye over the small kitchen table.

 

Cat ignored her, lifting a spoon and idly stirring her coffee. She didn’t use sugar or cream so the only point to the gesture was to create further distance, to place an action between them so Cat didn’t have to meet Lena’s gaze. Lena could understand that, to a degree. She knew how powerful everything had been, and after what had occurred when they had made it home… she remembered the exact moment it had become too much for Cat. That moment had rattled her as well, and she hadn’t even been the instigator. So she did understand, just as she also understood that it was up to her to fix this.

 

Seeing Kara at the gala last night, Lena had been so thankful for Cat’s steady presence at her side. Cat had been the strong one then, keeping Lena from spiraling and giving her something to focus on other than her want. Lena still felt it—the jealousy might have calmed when they found out that Kara’s date was only a friend, but what it had left behind was far more potent. It left memories, familiar ones that had been colored in a different light. They stuck with her, Kara’s every smile and blush, whispers of so much more that had the potential to exist. In the wake of those, what had seemed sudden became anything but, making it all the easier to accept that this was what she wanted.

 

But that want could wait for another few minutes, because Cat couldn’t do this on her own.

 

“Cat, it’s tomorrow.”

 

“Hmmm,” it was noncommittal, Cat looking anywhere but at Lena as she put down her spoon and raised the coffee to her lips.

 

“You said we would figure everything else out tomorrow. You said-”

 

“Have you checked L-Corp’s stock prices today, Lena? I’m sure after last night-”

 

“You said her name!”

 

Cat flinched at that, causing Lena to feel a stab of guilt. She wished she could do this gently but they didn’t have the time. Right now Cat was still there, just below the surface. The facade was in place but it would break if Lena struck at its most vulnerable juncture. If she let it set however, it would be all the harder to bring Cat back.

 

“I was touching you last night, and you were thinking about her.” That got more of a reaction, Cat’s eyes glancing up to her own briefly, and Lena could see a flash of desperation, Cat begging her to stop. But she wouldn’t. She couldn't. Their race into bed last night had been frantic, a way to forget in each other, except that Cat hadn’t forgotten, and neither had Lena. “Cat, you said ' _Kara_.'”

 

It happened on the name, Cat’s mask not able to withstand the impact of the recollection it caused. Her face cracked open, and Lena was able to read everything that it confessed; guilt that Cat had said another woman’s name when Lena was between her thighs, shame that that name belonged to an employee who worked under her, lust that couldn’t quite be restrained, and fear because of all of it.

 

Lena reached out and grabbed Cat’s hand, digging her nails into the skin as Cat had done for her at the gala, providing a physical anchor to keep her from retreating again.

 

“Cat, I need you here with me. Don’t leave me alone in this, please,” it was a low blow, speaking to Cat’s inherent need to put others before herself.

 

The emotions continued to flicker for another few seconds, finally landing on resignation, and as they did Cat shifted her hand so that her fingers could wrap around Lena’s own.

 

“And you came with me the instant I did.”

 

Lena didn’t look away, acknowledging with a slight tightening of her grip that she had. Hearing that name cross Cat’s lips at that moment had made it impossible not to imagine it. She had pictured the three of them, Cat sitting regally on the edge of the bed instead of the middle, Kara kneeling on the floor before her, and Lena herself, standing over them, her hand in Kara’s hair directing her movements as she had Kara to bring her wife to the brink. Lena had been close already, and that image was all it had taken to push her over.

 

They had done it before, pictured other women and sharing the fantasy out loud, but only when they were side-by-side touching themselves, never each other. And they had rules about Kara. Lena was more lax with them than Cat, but even she had never allowed herself to bring Kara into their bed, respecting how important it was to Cat not to abuse her position.

 

Yet Cat had given in first, and if the floodgates had been opened before by the jealousy, now there was no going back. And Lena wanted it, not just the sex, but all of it. She wanted to wake up with Kara between them the next morning, wrapped securely in their arms and murmuring sleepy for five more minutes. She wanted to laugh over breakfast when Kara ate her food too quickly and then made puppy dog eyes at them until one of them—probably Cat—relented and gave Kara some of hers. She wanted to be there for birthdays and holidays and every other night in between. She wanted so much that she had lain awake all night daring to hope.

 

As the hours passed that hope had built up, temporarily sidetracked this morning by Cat, but now with nothing else between them to keep them from discussing this, it flared into full being.

 

“We can’t,” Cat was reading her mind, but that wasn’t the answer Lena cared to hear.

 

“Would it really be so bad if we-”

 

“NO!” It was harsher than Cat meant it, and Lena knew this was why Cat had pulled back, to avoid an outburst. “No,” softer this time, but no less sure of itself. “I’m sorry but we can’t.”

 

“I’m not saying we make a move on her,” she had to keep trying. “We don’t even know if she would be interested in us, but if we just felt her out…”

 

“Lena,” Cat sounded tired now, and Lena had to wonder if she hadn’t been the only one to spend a sleepless night, both of them holding still so as not to disturb the other.

 

“Even if she wasn’t my employee, even if she was interested, even if we could be sure that her tastes were like ours, that wouldn't change anything.”

 

“Why?” Lena hated that she was whining. She was better than this. It was just that Kara…

 

“That’s why.” There was compassion there, but also truth. “We want her too much and we want her for more than a few nights. There’s too much wrapped up in this, Lena, don’t you see that? Maybe Kara is stronger than we expected, but do you really think she can handle both of us?”

 

Lena knew what Cat was talking about, but she didn’t like it, and her mouth was already opening to form another argument when Cat went on.

 

“Do you really think that we wouldn’t break her eventually? She has so much light and promise. We can’t risk that on a dream.”

 

Lena could picture that as well, for all that she had been focused on picturing other things. She could picture Kara’s light dimming, picture how the darkness in both of them—the cynicism, the baggage—how those would rub off on her. Picture how Kara’s perspective would shift to be more like theirs, her bright world slowly overshadowed by their own.

 

“It was never supposed to happen like this.” The fight went out of her; she knew Cat was right. Even if everything else worked out, they couldn’t. Both of them would be willing to wager their own hearts, that much was clear, but not Kara’s. Never Kara’s.

 

“I know,” Cat rubbed her thumb over Lena’s hand, a gesture she knew Lena liked. Cat wasn’t done though, the tension in her shoulders giving away that there was more she wanted to say.

 

“What is it?”

 

“I’ll let you go,” it was so quiet and Lena almost didn’t believe she had heard it right. “I think she can make you happy, Lena. If you want to…”

 

“Cat,” Lena tried to interject, but Cat kept talking.

 

“You’re not her boss, you don’t have that over you, and she’s nearer to your age than she is mine.” Lena closed her eyes as if that could keep her from hearing Cat’s words. “You can see if she’s interested, if she’s… compatible. And if she’s not then I’ll be here waiting for you. But if she is... we can’t have her together, but just one of us… maybe.” Cat shrugged, full of an uncertainty that was completely unlike her.

 

“Cat,” she said it again, getting up to walk around the table. “Never, Cat.” She ran her fingers through Cat’s hair, down to her chin to tilt her head back and make Cat look at her. There were unshed tears there, and she knew her own were threatening. “I didn’t… neither of us thought we would meet someone like her, but I didn’t settle when I married you Cat, and I know you didn’t settle for me, either. I don’t want anyone without you, I don’t want anyone else in my life who’s just mine, and I refuse to consider the idea of someone who’s not _ours_.” She and Cat had some incompatibilities, but they fit in their own way, and Lena wouldn’t trade what they had for anything.

 

Lena held Cat’s gaze until she was sure her words had sunk in, until Cat’s spine straightened and she gave a tentative smile. It was pained, as was Lena’s own expression, but at least it was present.

 

Leaning down, Lena captured Cat’s lips in a long kiss, neither of them pushing it further, but just being there for each other.

 

“We have to let her go,” Cat was authoritative again when the need for air drove them apart.

 

“Not right... we can’t just…” she trailed off. They couldn’t just stop, go from several dinners a week to none. They might not know if Kara could ever want them the same way, but she did enjoy being around them. Bringing those to an abrupt end would hurt her, and if they wouldn't go after her to avoid causing her such a hurt, they sure as hell wouldn’t do it by throwing her away.

 

“We’ll start by regulating them to once a week and then cutback from there. And we’ll also have to be more careful about our behavior around her. It will be hard, now that… that we’ve talked about it, but it’s for the best.”

 

Lena nodded sadly, accepting. She kissed Cat for a second time, telling herself that this was all she needed. Cat had always been enough, was _still_ enough, she just needed to remember.

 

/////////////////////

 

“We’re here,” Lena poked Cat in the side, smiling when she earned a glare in return.

 

“I do have eyes, Lena. I am quite capable of making the deduction on my own, thank you very much.”

 

“But isn’t it better when I do it for you?” Her voice was too sweet, and Cat shook her head fondly before reaching for the car door.

 

It had been two months since the gala, and while things hadn’t gotten any better, they had gotten easier. There was an art to bearing pain—both of them had been happier in recent years, but that didn’t mean that Lex’s betrayal, that both of their mother’s disdain, hadn’t kept their skills sharp. So with Kara… it didn’t hurt any less, knowing she was there and not being able to touch, to support, but the feeling was so constant that they were able to adjust to it as a new normal.

 

It was a normal that saw Kara as a staple in their bedroom now, fantasies about her never absent for long. That wasn’t without its own trials, but when it seemed like Cat would drown in her guilt, Lena was there to hold her together, as Cat was there to watch over Lena and make sure she never got carried away during those all too infrequent dinners… or that one time Lena had almost sent hundreds of flowers to Kara’s apartment, just because she could.

 

But she wasn’t going to think about any of that now, not about the way Kara lit up whenever Lena stepped out of the elevator at CatCo, not about Kara’s tentative question the other week asking if L-Corp was getting more business in the aftermath of the reveal—clearly attempting to ascertain why there had been the change in scheduling—and not about how Kara’s face had fallen when Lena had said they were, and that it was likely things would get even busier in the coming months.

 

So no, Lena wasn’t thinking about any of that, because it was a gorgeous Saturday and she had talked Cat into being impulsive with her, which meant that she had managed to drag Cat out to an art gallery show for local amateurs. They could spend the next hour or so making snide comments to each other about the pretentious artists and their oh so brilliant work, and forget all about their other troubles, about anything outside this little bubble.

 

Entering the building they had only a few seconds to orient themselves before the curator saw them, choking on his predictable cheese square when he did.

 

“Miss Grant, Miss Luthor! It’s an honor to have you here. I wasn’t expecting… Our artists will be thrilled! They’re all here today, you know. We have quite a range of impressive rising stars, so original, and I’m sure-”

 

“Yes, yes,” Cat cut him off. ‘Original’ was obviously a code word for ‘bad,’ it might work on some people—those who just wanted to show off with something different without any real understanding of culture—but the curator should know better than to try it on them. “The millennials are a generation of monumental insight and thought, it’s an inspiration how you’ve chosen to feature them so exclusively.”

 

He had the grace to blush at that, but if he had any more to say, they didn’t hear him, already sweeping past to walk further into the space.

 

“Really Cat, you could have been a bit nicer. It’s not like we came here to see _good_ art, after all.”

 

“Oh?” Cat kept walking. “So just because that man presumably didn’t paint any of these monstrosities himself he shouldn’t be blamed for sharing them? You’re going soft, Lena, I’m not sure I approve.”

 

Lena grinned in answer, this was exactly what she had been anticipating when they had set out today. “I do believe you’ve thrown a gauntlet, my dear wife, and yet somehow, I think it will be the poor artists who suffer, not us.”

 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Cat paused, taking in a canvas covered in bright swatches of green and orange. It was hideous, made even worse by the gaggle of bearded twenty-somethings standing in front of it in intense contemplation. “Our eyes may never recover.”

 

The next hour passed pleasantly for the most part, a few artists tried to grab their attention but they were quickly sent packing by a look, and contrary to what Lena had said earlier about the artists being the ones to suffer, Lena and Cat kept their voices hushed. No one was going to go home and paint an “Ode to the Destruction of CEO’s” on their account, it would probably sell quite well and they didn’t want that on their conscience.

 

Lena was just thinking they should head out for an early dinner when they saw her, Kara standing in front of one of the pieces that was admittedly, not quite as terrible as the rest.

 

“Kara,” the name escaped, almost horrified, or was it reverent? How was it that things that were desirable could often be both?

 

Kara heard and turned in their direction, but where ordinarily Kara would smile upon seeing them, this time her eyes widened and face took on a distinctly uncertain expression, like a puppy who had gotten caught with its head in a cookie jar.

 

“Kiera, this is a surprise,” Cat’s droll tone was at odds to the way her hand on Lena’s back had knotted into a tight fist.

 

“Miss Grant, Miss Luthor. W-what are you doing here? It wasn’t on your schedule, did I…” Kara was reaching for her phone as she spoke. It wasn’t uncommon for her to arrange Cat’s weekend schedule, and her forehead wrinkled at her possible error.

 

“Relax, Kara. It was a spur of the moment thing, there was nothing for you to organize,” Lena drew closer, feeling pulled into Kara’s orbit. A voice was yelling in the back of her mind, telling her that seeing Kara like this, so casual in comfortable jeans with her hair in a messy bun—this was hardly an elite local—was dangerous. But they had been so good around her, so professional. Maybe just this once… it wasn’t as if leaving now would save them, anyway. And they deserved a treat, a reward, didn’t they?

 

At Lena’s reassurance Kara did relax slightly, but her smile, when it came, was hesitant. Lena wanted to know why.

 

“What are you doing here all alone, Kiera? Friends busy for the afternoon? What about that sister of yours? Or do they have better taste in art than you?” Cat was conveniently ignoring the fact that she and Lena were at the same gallery.

 

Kara winced sympathetically. “It’s not all that bad, and this one-”

 

“I guess I should commend you for finding something that wasn’t ghastly,” Cat nodded at the painting, but Lena could tell that she wasn’t really looking. How could you admire anything else when the other option was Kara?

 

“Besides, that wasn’t the question, Kara,” Lena jumped in before Cat could realize her mistake. She must have felt the same thing Lena had, wanting to uncover why Kara was acting strange, and Cat’s instinct to shelter had seen her making a personal inquiry before she could think it through. Lena knew Cat had been trying to gauge if someone had stood Kara up, or hurt her in any way, but she would backtrack if given the opportunity.

  
“Some people are actually coming by later. There’s no reason for them to be here the entire time, and my contract says…” Kara cut herself off. “I mean… I just wanted to come early?”

 

“Your contract? The curator mentioned that all the artists were here today. Don’t tell me this is yours?” That would explain her behavior, she was probably self-conscious about it, and Lena was glad Cat hadn’t said anything worse.

 

“Oh no, I was just…” Lena thought Kara might lie, but then a shift happened, similar to what they had seen at the gala. Kara had seemed taller then, more powerful—if concerned—when she had asked Susan about the phone call. Kara wasn’t concerned now, but her gaze had taken on that same weight, her attitude more sure. “My stuff is further back. The curator didn’t like it very much so he put it out of the way. I’d be happy to show it to you, if you’re interested.”

 

Was there a challenge there? A dare?

 

“Well then, by all means. Lead on,” Cat’s words shocked Lena, she had expected to have to fight Cat for this, now that Cat had had a minute to settle herself, and she glanced over when Kara spun away. Cat’s jaw was set in determination, and the look they exchanged became one of silent agreement, both of them holding an awareness that they were in too deep, and that the only thing to do was to see it through.

 

“Just over here,” Kara led them into the next room, walking over to a corner and Lena was just thinking of some ambiguous platitudes to say, when her eyes landed on the work and once again, she found herself confronted with a new side of Kara that redefined everything she thought she knew.

 

They were a series of four paintings, each depicting a different shot of the city. She recognized the views in two of them, neither an exact match to the office balconies at L-Corp and CatCo—taken from a higher angle—but near enough. She wasn’t sure where the other two paintings were located, but in each of those she could see CatCo and L-Corp respectively. The overall effect was to capture all of downtown, but it wasn’t the buildings that stood out, however expertly they were done, it was the people that made the true impact. They were small, but as she stepped closer more and more details appeared. There had to be hundreds, if not thousands of them; snapshots of life inside the windows, miniscule but rendered with such finesse that they were the central focus of the collection. With each person was a light, a soft glow applied to their outer edges filling them with potential and hope. The paintings were beautiful, far better than anything else here, but they weren’t just beautiful, and maybe that was why the curator had been afraid of them.

 

Because the images were sad, lonely even, and despite all the people, the painter herself was outside the frame. Not even the observer could achieve that same seclusion. They could come close, but the painting managed to evoke the understanding that when this had been created, the observer had been present in the shot, that they were amongst the people, only the painter had been aloft and alone.

 

“How…” Lena knew what Cat wanted to ask, the ‘how is this you?’ hanging in the air, but she stifled it in the last instant, replacing it with, “how did you do this?” That was the safer path, sounding almost as if Cat was asking for the mechanics of the thing. But just like Lena, Kara had heard, and she answered the real question.

 

“When I was thirteen the community where I lived, it… there was an explosion. My parents got me out, and my cousin, but everything else, everyone I knew… they were all just gone. For a long time I couldn’t picture any of it without also seeing the flames. But then Eliza, by foster mother, bought me some paints and I was able to get them out of my head. They couldn’t change like that, when they were on canvas, and it helped to be able to look at them without the fire.” Lena tore herself away from the painting, seeing Kara’s face shadowed in pain.  

 

“I didn’t know you were adopted as well,” it wasn’t what she should latch onto in all that, but it was the one she could connect with. She had known loss of course, but her biological mother had died when she was only four and she didn’t remember her too well. Lionel’s death hadn’t hit her hard, and for all that Lex wasn’t the brother she had grown up with, he was at least alive. But Kara… Lena saw dimensions in Kara’s eyes that she hadn’t been able to fathom before, a loss that Kara’s words couldn’t do justice. It was why the painting felt so lonely, because Kara hid this side of herself away to protect those around her, and Lena had to wonder, how many people had had the privilege to see? Not many. Of that she was sure.

 

“My sister, Alex, she’s the one who eventually got me to start painting other things. I still paint my parents, my home, all the other people and things, but this…” Kara waved at the wall, “now I like to paint things that are still here. The life I have, this life I love.”

 

The sadness was fading from Kara as she spoke, the light that they were so used to returning, only now it seemed to shine brighter, juxtaposed against that pain. Lena and Cat had been worried about their darkness, but they had never considered that Kara might have her own, one even greater than theirs that she rose above every day. They had never considered that sharing it like this, having people who could take it from her, could bear it with her, was what she craved more than anything else.

 

They had never considered that it wasn’t Kara who had to be strong enough for them, but rather the two of them that had to be strong enough for her.

 

One more rationale not to act fell away, and where Lena didn’t think she could want Kara any more than she already did, now she was proved to be so very, very wrong. She just didn’t know if it would matter in the end.


	5. Chapter Five

Kara’s voice seemed to expand as she spoke, as she exposed herself and let herself be more than she usually was, and when the last word rolled off her tongue the silence it left in its wake was weighted, hovering on the edge of possibility.

 

It held there, a single instant stretching on and on, and Kara made no move to shield herself or lock herself away. She wanted to show these women everything, to give them her sorrow, her pain, but also make them see themselves as she saw them. She wanted to make them understand how much strength and beauty radiated from them in their every moment, how the wonder that was this planet and all its people was never more obvious to her than when she was in their presence.

 

“Kiera...” it was stilted, so different from Cat’s normal confident resonance, as if she didn’t know what she wanted to say yet, or which path she was allowed to take.

_“All of them, any of them.”_ It burned in Kara’s throat, unspoken but no less real. _“Tell me that it matters to you. Tell me that these last two months have been a lie. Tell me that… just tell me that you can_ see _!”_

 

“Kara, you… I mean… we…” Lena looked to Cat, and Kara wanted to fall to her knees in front of them, beg either of them, both of them, to say any of the things she longed to hear.

 

Instead it was the sharp trill of her phone that sounded next, shattering the bubble that had formed around them, and Kara fought the urge to reach out and grasp them, to keep them in this space. But she knew she couldn’t, and the answering scream that reverberated through her mind bordered on feral.

 

Another ring split the air and Cat took a step back, everything about her from her posture to the almost care in her eyes beginning to shut itself down. Kara’s gaze jumped to Lena who hadn’t backed up with Cat, but who was now shifting, suddenly interested in someone else’s painting.

_“No! No, please!”_ They couldn’t hear her, weren’t even watching to see anymore, and it felt like a rejection; just one more memory to mix in with all the other times she had been sent away.

 

“I-I should probably get this,” her shoulders slumped in defeat, she had been so close… but had she? Had she really? The uncertainty set in as the rest of the world came back into focus. What was it that she had thought to accomplish? Did she honestly think that her story—that her _self_ —that those could change anything about how lonely she had been over these past two months?

 

“Of course, Kiera.” There was nothing in Cat’s voice that gave any indication that she had been wavering over something, or any clue as to what she might have said. “Lena and I were about to head out on any account. Thank you for sharing your work.” Kara suppressed a flinch at that, at the practiced tone, the transformation of her work into something so bland, but her phone rang again and she rushed to pick up before it went to voicemail.

 

“Alex,” she greeted her sister, turning so she wouldn’t have to see them walk out on her, and by the time Alex had explained the situation and apologized for needing to bring in Supergirl, Kara didn’t need to look to know that they were gone.

 

“Text me the address, I’ll be right there.” She hung up, glancing at her paintings as she waited for the address to come in. She was drawn to the one that depicted CatCo, zeroing in on the two figures in Cat’s office.

 

She had painted this particular window the morning after the gala, after the night Cat had called her ‘stunning.’ It was all she had heard from them then, stopping herself from listening in to a private conversation, but the recollection of that word leaving Cat’s lips had stayed with her, along with the expression of agreement on Lena’s face.

 

With deliberate reverence, Kara brushed her finger over the strokes. They didn’t appear as people, exactly—the window too far off into the distance to capture much detail, and she doubted that Cat or Lena had seen it during their short perusal—but Kara had poured everything she felt into those two specks of light. She had imagined the scene as she did, imagined that there was someone else there with them who was just out of view behind the building’s facade. It was the closest she had ever come to putting herself into one of her own works, but even so it was only the faintest of suggestions, not able to counter the truth that she had always been on the outside. That was something that had become abundantly clear in the following weeks.

 

They still had their dinners, but they were no longer quite as frequent, and when they did happen both Cat and Lena were more reserved. But then today… today they had _asked_. Neither of them had seemed open, but she had been so desperate for more, so swept up in the lingering hope that maybe if they could be _here_ , in this place with her, then she could also be _there_ , in her painting with them. And as a result she had… she had…

 

She had dove, making a spectacle of herself before crashing on the reefs.

 

Shame filled her, along with the full realization of what she had done, and in one swift, angry movement, she dug her nail into the canvas, chipping off a tiny section of paint next to that office. It wasn’t much, the damage slight, but in the place where a ‘maybe Kara’ could have existed, now there was only empty space. Now there was nothing, ensuring that no one could ever again look at this and entertain even the possibility that the two dots of light were really three.

 

Her phone chirped, a text update with the location, and Kara made herself step away. As much as she didn’t feel like a hero right now, people were counting on her, and she had to go.

 

Slipping out the back exit, she hid her clothes behind some old boxes and leaped into the sky, hardly sparing a thought for her contract with the curator. It wasn’t like he would even notice she was gone anyway, not like anyone there would notice, anyone at all.

 

//////////////////////

 

“Kara, you need to dodge! You’re letting him get in too many punches!” Alex’s voice was worried over the earpiece, and Kara considered just taking the damn thing out so Alex wouldn’t have to hear the sounds of her getting hit, but a blow to the side of her head broke the device, resolving the issue on its own.

 

“What’s the matter, Supergirl?” The rogue alien taunted, pulling back to take another swing. “I thought you were supposed to be powerful? Didn’t you come here to stop me?”

 

“Shut up.” Kara didn’t want to talk to this man. She was trying to keep her anger in check but the mocking remarks he had been throwing at her since this fight had started were making that difficult.

 

She always got angry when she encountered people of any kind who could so readily justify harming others for their own pleasure, but most of the time the joy of flying, the knowledge that she was saving people, most of the time those were enough to let her shine in battle. Most of the time she would smile, exhilarating in the thrill of her abilities and in the assuredness of her purpose; loving how after the fight she could soar and experience through the sights and sounds how all of it was still here. But recently…

 

Two and a half weeks ago she had stood in a gallery with Cat and Lena. She had shared herself with them and they had walked away, and even though she had known all along that she was alone in her feelings, it hadn’t made the moment any easier to bear. So now the only thing left was to insulate herself and try and safeguard whatever she could.

 

And that meant running. That meant that when it had seemed as if Cat might say something to her about that day, Kara had abruptly recalled a task she had to do and escaped so that she wouldn’t have to hear whatever platitude Cat had come up with. It also meant that the next time Lena had shown up at CatCo for a dinner, Kara had made an excuse and extracted herself from their presence, not sticking around long enough to see their reactions. She didn’t want to know if they were disappointed, or worse, unaffected; both options that would only deepen the ache. And it meant that when Lena had shown up a second time, Kara had done it again, as she was planning on doing each time until they stopped asking.

 

And now her emotions, her anger at any who spread suffering, were becoming so much harder to control because while the damage may already have been done, in order not to embarrass or expose herself further, Kara was tearing herself away. Once again she was losing people she cared about, more surely than anything those first two months after the gala had set in place. And once again, none of it was because she wanted to, but because she had to.

 

Part of her felt like she was back in that day, all those years ago. She had done what was necessary then, getting on the ship when her parents had asked her to to fulfil her duty to her younger cousin, but sometimes she was still resentful. She had wanted them to let her stay, to not give her such a huge responsibility for a child. She had wanted them to tell her that it was ok to rest, that she didn’t need to carry their world in her memories when no one else could. She had wanted their faith in her not to hang so heavy around her heart when she arrived too late and discovered that she had let them all down.

 

The compilation of those wants, all the things she hadn’t been, or wasn’t allowed, fueled her anger, made her stronger and weaker at the same time. When she fought now, in her adversaries she saw only people who would gleefully take others away from families and friends. She saw monsters who would inflict a similar pain upon this world. It made Kara want to hurt them back, something that terrified her and drove her turmoil to even greater, unstable heights.

 

Kara wasn’t going to give into that though, she couldn’t. She was a hero, and if she did, more people would be at risk.

 

She took another hit, and her only retaliation was to shove the alien with an open hand, unwilling to close her fingers into a fist.

 

“An acquaintance of mine advised not to come here. She had the idea that this city wouldn’t take kindly to my dietary preference,” he grinned, exposing sharp fangs that Kara knew would be a perfect match for the striations on the three sets of human remains that had been found over the past week.

 

“I told you to be quiet,” she warned again, concentrating on keeping her breathing even.

 

His laugh cascaded over her, and at her side, her fingers twitched with dark intent.

 

“I like to start while they’re still alive, did you know that? Their pleas add this extra flavor that is just to _die_ for.”  

 

A second later he was crashing into one of the abandoned buildings in their vicinity with enough force to crack the concrete of the walls. It did little more than faze him, and as he pulled himself up he made a show of dusting himself off with exaggerated, theatrical movements.

 

“That wasn’t very nice. What will my next dinner guest think if I turn up all dirty like this? It’s the last meal that person will ever participate in after all, and you wouldn’t want to ruin it for them, would you? That doesn't seem very heroic of you.”

 

“I’m trying!” She teetered on the brink, and now she missed the earpiece, missed Alex’s voice speaking to her. “I’m trying to be that way, but I need you to shut up!”

 

“Really? You could have fooled me. I passed a lovely young girl on the street just this morning, I would guess she was just about thirteen years old. I marked her scent to hunt later, I think I’ll-”

 

This time when she hit him, he didn’t stop at the first wall but continued on, blasting through two more before bouncing off the fourth and landing in a pile of tangled limbs.

 

“What was…?” His tone was confused by the sudden shift in her power, and he stumbled when rising to his feet.

 

“I _told_ you!” She stalked towards him, cape billowing behind her and anger searing in her eyes. “I’m trying to be the hero, trying not to injure you too much no matter how evil you may be, but you just won’t shut up.” The heel of her boot slammed into him and he cried out as the bones in his arm shattered when he attempted a block. “Those people you killed, do you even know their names? I do. I also learned all the names of the people you killed before you came to National City, I read about all those families you tore apart!” Her next attack pushed him into the ground which shuddered and groaned ominously at the impact. “So you need to be quiet because my control hasn’t been very good lately, and if I don’t hold myself back…” A leg swept into her knee, and where earlier she would have crumpled to avoid causing more harm, now she held firm, and he let out another cry when his leg snapped in two.

 

“You bitch!” He spat at her, his face contorted in agony and something very much like fear. It made her clench her teeth to stifle a growl and she wondered how many people had looked at him like that, how many names that weren’t on the list, and how close her own rage was to making her into something just like him.

 

“Forget the child. I’m going to hunt down every single person who remotely smells like you, and when I eat them their screams-”

 

His head smashed into the ground, sending blood and chipped teeth flying.

 

“You need to stop.”

 

He was battered and bleeding, but the defiance was still gleaming in his gaze, and without her conscious volition, Kara found her fist in the air again, ready to descend.

 

“Supergirl!” A hand circled her wrist, solid and secure. “Supergirl, we’re here, it’s over.”

 

“Alex?” Kara blinked, hesitant, but the sure touch was reaching into her soul, surrounding her and lifting her from the fog.

 

“It’s ok, you won. He’s not going to hurt any more people.” A second hand joined the first, running over her arm to loosen the muscles. Kara took a step back, sagging when Alex leaned in, whispering so only Kara could hear. “It’s ok, Kara, I’m here.”

 

Other DEO agents swarmed around them, the noise of the bustling activity not enough to drown out the alien’s flailing, but with a gentle tug Alex took charge of her and because it was _Alex_ , Kara was able to yield. Alex guided her into one of the other empty buildings and pulled Kara to the ground, sitting next to her and wrapping her arms around her.

 

“I’m sorry,” Kara buried into the crock of Alex’s shoulder. “You shouldn’t always have to do this, Alex. You shouldn’t always have to hold me up when I-”

 

“Shhh…” Alex tightened her grip. “I’m always going to be here for you, I’m always going to _want_ to be here for you, Kara, so don’t even think that. Just breath for me, ok? I’ve got you, you’re not alone.” Kara knew better than most how easily that could change, but when Alex placed her finger under Kara’s chin to tilt her head up to meet her eyes, Kara let her. “I will never let you be alone, do you understand me? _Never_ , Kara. I promise.”

 

It shouldn’t work, but Alex was so sure of herself, so confident, that all Kara could do was accept, and tension began to drain from her body.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Alex’s voice was soft and Kara considered it but didn’t respond, and Alex took her silence as license to continue. “Kara, I’ve known something’s been wrong for a few months, ever since…” she paused, and Kara heard the self-blame. She couldn’t let that persist, the need to cut it off becoming more pressing than her own struggle.

 

“It has nothing to do with that,” Kara intertwined their fingers, bringing them closer together.

 

“But Kara, the way I acted before the L-Corp gala… we never talked about it. I wanted to, but then you were busy painting that following week, and then Maggie happened, and it was just never the right moment for a serious conversation,” more self-blame and Kara straightened, making sure Alex could see her conviction.  

 

“Alex, we’re fine. I’m not upset with you for being protective,” Alex huffed in disbelief at that, it sounded forced, but Kara appreciated the effort. “Well, ok. I _was_ , but it wasn’t really about you, and I’m not annoyed anymore. And Maggie… I’m so happy for you Alex. You’re not doing anything wrong by wanting to spend time with her, and I’m proud of you for taking care of yourself for once.” That was all true. Alex had been happier recently, she was smiling more and drinking less, and Kara didn’t want to get in the way of any of that. “So please, Alex. Trust me. When I say we’re fine, I mean it.”

 

Alex was wavering, but here in her sister’s arms, Kara was stronger, and she stared Alex down until she relented.  

 

“Ok, but something did happen, didn’t it? Something you’re not telling me?”

 

“I… yes. And I want to tell you, I do, really, but not right now. Not here.” It was too raw and if she started, she would crumble in this broken building. If she started now, she wouldn’t stop until she had cried and screamed and punched all the emotion out of her, and she wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.

 

“Ok.” Kara was grateful Alex didn’t push, knowing how hard it must be for Alex not to. “So...  how about some DEO gossip then?” This attempt at lightening the mood was more successful, both of them settling now that they had come to an accord. “There’s this rumor going around that someone caught Vasquez and Lane in a storage closet together, and they weren't exactly in there to take inventory…” Alex kept talking, and Kara relaxed as the familiar tones washed over her, always there for her, just like Alex had promised.

 

Her phone went off a minute later—an alert reminding her about a meeting—and Alex gave her one final squeeze.

 

“You have to go,” Alex’s smile was still laced with concern, but she made no move to stop Kara from standing. “But we’ll talk more, soon?”

 

Kara nodded, not sure when she would be ready, only that for Alex, someday she would be.

 

Her renewed peace began to slip away as soon as she made it back to the office, fading as it became increasingly evident that Cat was overly anxious for some unknown reason. Kara wanted to do something, to be something for Cat, but she couldn’t interfere, and that gulf caused new fractures to spiral out from those that Alex had helped to bandage over.

 

The day wore on and it was only near the end, as Kara was adding something to her calendar while the other employees were packing up to go home, that she figured it out. When she did, it only made her feel worse. Her scattered state these past few weeks was no excuse for forgetting that four years ago to the day, Lex Luthor had been arrested by Superman. Four years ago, Lena had seen her family fall, and four years ago, Lena found herself with no one but Cat willing to see her through.

 

She wanted to be there for both women, hating that if she hadn’t been so foolish two and a half weeks ago, maybe she could have in some small way. But that option was closed to her now, if it had ever been there at all.

 

Just then the gears of Cat’s private elevator sprang into life and Kara’s stomach lurched with the knowledge that Lena was on her way up. Lena was coming here for comfort—from Cat primarily—but what if she was hoping that Kara, that someone else who had never judged her for Lex, would be there as well?

 

“Kiera!” Cat’s call caught her off guard and she almost tripped on her way into the office. “I won’t be needing you anymore tonight. Drop these folders off in the marketing department on your way out and you can go home.”

 

“I… yes, Miss Grant. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She grabbed the folders autopilot, backing out in a haze that was half relief and half… too many other things to count. She had known that eventually they would stop asking her to stay, but she hadn’t thought that it would be so soon. Of course, it was far more likely that this dismissal had nothing to do with the way she had been retreating from their dinners, that it was about the specific day, about Cat and Lena not wanting anyone to intrude, but when they were meeting here instead of Lena’s office or their home—both locations that probably would have made more sense, unless there was some extra factor—it still felt like an exclusion.

 

The elevator doors opened as Kara was gathering up her things and she tried not to see how Lena’s step faltered when she passed Kara’s desk. Lena looked as if she wanted to stop, but then she recaptured her stride and walked on with only a single word to show she had noticed Kara’s presence. It burned more, accompanied by guilt that Kara was letting her own hurt at the situation overshadow Lena’s.   

 

She had to get out of here.

 

Crossing to the public elevator and fitting in with the last of the other employees, Kara hit the button that would take her to the marketing department. She caught the briefest glimpse of Cat trailing her hands over Lena’s arms before the doors slid shut, and in her desire to race back, to race over to them and reach out, her fingers spasmed and came dangerously close to crumpling the folders in her hand.

 

It was only after she had deposited them, after she had made her way to the lobby, hovering next to the exit, that she let herself be weak for a moment. She just needed to know that they were ok, and then she could leave. It wouldn’t be a big intrusion, not if it was just a second or two, only long enough to establish that…

 

Their hearts were beating too quickly, too erratically, and Kara’s head shot up, hand flying to her glasses to pull them from her face so she could peer through floors to Cat’s office. The two women were pressed side by side, hiding the fact that their hands were interlocked behind their backs from the direct view of the man strolling boldly through the balcony doors.

 

“Luthor,” Clark’s voice was low; a threat disguised as a greeting.

 

“Here for my yearly warning, Superman?” To a human Lena would sound calm, sound poised, but there was a slight tremor that was all too clear to Kara’s ears. They hadn’t sent her away today because they had given up on her, they had done it to keep her safe.

 

The anger, purer and more personal than anything National City’s revolving assortment of villains could bring out, surged up inside of her. A snarl ripped from her throat and her glasses disintegrated when her hand clenched into a fist. No part of her was capable of keeping it down when those women were at risk, were frightened, and when it was the crest of _her_ house that was being used to do it. In an instant she was in the stairwell, running up flight after flight with superhuman speed, only slowing to an almost normal level once she arrived at the correct floor.

 

And then she was in between them, standing in front of Cat and Lena and drawing herself up to glare at her younger cousin, to subject him to the full wrath of the eldest heir to the House of El.   


	6. Chapter Six

“Here for my yearly warning, Superman?” Lena stood her ground, chin raised against Superman’s scorn, her tight grip on Cat’s hand behind their backs the only outward indicator of her distress.

 

Superman ignored her question, stepping forward and looking around the office slowly as he checked for weapons or anything else that would confirm he had been right about her all along. It was just for show, of course—he wouldn’t have landed without doing a thorough search first—but he wanted Lena to know what he thought of her, that he didn’t have to answer on her schedule. His eyes paused at Cat’s desk, most likely reading private documents he had no right to see, and Lena fought against the urge to duck her head at the shame and humiliation of not being able to do anything to stop it.

 

The first year had been the worst, that first anniversary when Lex’s crimes had still been fresh in the memory of the public. Cat had tried to get her to stay home for it, to spend the day within the confines of their secure apartment, but Lena had refused. She had been determined to face it all with her head held high.

 

And she had.

 

She had born the increased insults and suspicious glares without wavering, hadn’t cringed when Jess had intercepted yet another delivery of dead flowers, hadn’t cowered when a mob had formed outside L-Corp chanting her name. She had even stayed late just to prove a point—that she was stronger than all of them, that she could take anything they threw her way—and when she had eventually made it home it was with the knowledge that she had succeeded where so many believed she would fail.

 

That triumph had lasted one hour, and then Superman had arrived, destroying the lock on the window and entering without waiting for an invitation. He had towered over them, unexpected and imposing with the twisted metal of the lock still in his grasp, and that one, sheltered place where Lena should have been able to be vulnerable without fear had been taken from her.

 

She didn’t recall exactly what he had said next, but the feeling had stuck with her, sending her back to all those times Lillian had looked at her as a child and Lena had squirmed; all those times she hadn’t understood what she had done wrong, only that she must have done something. Every self-doubt and insecurity she had had about who she was had all come rushing back, and for a moment Lena had even started to wonder if she deserved it. After all, if the personification of truth and justice had judged her and found her wanting, how could she not?  

 

But Cat had been there, Cat had saved her when she couldn’t save herself. And every year that Cat continued to be with her on this day allowed Lena to stand just a little bit taller in Superman’s presence. Cat also gave her something else as well, somewhere to deal with Superman that wasn’t in their home.

 

L-Corp wasn’t an option, if someone captured a shot of Superman anywhere near that building it would fuel the public’s opinion that Lena was just another Luthor. That was also why Cat couldn’t publish anything about these visits; any hint that Superman saw Lena as an enemy would only turn people’s minds more staunchly against her. But CatCo was a space that they had relative control over, and as a media hub, a superhero dropping by wasn’t particularly noteworthy even given the significance of the day. And as long as Cat sent everyone home at a reasonable hour no one else would get dragged into the middle of this.

 

Lena risked a glance to the side, _needing_ to know for sure that Kara was gone. She had already checked and rechecked in the scant minutes since Kara had left and this instant, but up until recently it would have been so easy to imagine that Kara might come wandering back in, that she would genuinely want to make sure that they were both ok. The desk was empty, and Lena’s flash of relief at seeing that enabled her to push past the guilt about how they had acted that day at the gallery; the day Kara had had placed her trust in them, had opened herself up, and they had walked away.

 

It had never been their intention to treat her like that, but what else could they have done? Cat was still Kara’s boss and they couldn’t realistically give her anything more than they had been already. Maybe a few words in consolation if they were careful not to get too personal, but Cat had attempted that later and Kara had run before she could get it out.

 

Lena reluctantly refocused on Superman before he could notice her distraction, taking some small comfort from knowing that Kara was far away, that at least something good had come from them hurting her. She clung to that idea, clutched it to herself desperately, and then was forced to watched in slow motion as it was ripped away.

 

The loud bang of the stairwell door crashing open reached her first, and then her eyes were filled with Kara—soft, strong, unbreakable but always kind Kara Danvers—throwing herself in front of them with more rage and resolve than she should have been able to possess. And where Superman had defeated monsters and demons and madmen, in the face of Kara’s fury, he quailed.

 

“Get out.” It was Kara’s voice that did it, or rather, the sheer venom dripping from her words, and as time sped up again Lena’s foot was already in the air, poised to chase after Kara and yank her back.

 

It didn’t matter that none of this made sense; Kara figuring out what was going on and still caring enough to intercede, caring enough to choose them over a hero without hesitation. It also didn’t matter that Lena would be less than useless as any sort of shield. All that mattered was that in a moment Superman would remember who he was, and when he did…

 

Would he view Kara as a threat? She didn’t see how he could once he got over the initial shock, but that had nothing to do with the way her heart felt like it would burst from her chest, how every instinct she had was screaming at her to keep Kara safe. They had done anything and everything they thought they had to to protect her, and if none of that had… the panic coursing through Lena’s system was overwhelming and she was consumed by the need to go after Kara, to pull her close and never let her go.

 

Her foot descended, but when the rest of her body tried to follow, shifting forward without consideration for her own well being, an arm across her chest halted her stride.

 

“Don’t.” Lena didn’t listen, struggling against the restraint.

 

“Lena, don’t!” This time she heard the fear, the same heightened emotion as her own but with an added sharpness that belayed how Cat was already contemplating the consequences. It took a moment for it to sink it, but then Cat’s nails dug into her skin, rooting her to the spot and the stab of pain allowed a flicker of rational thought into her mind.

 

Superman had recovered himself, standing firm again and holding his position, but there was a tautness that hadn’t been there before and Lena realized that the best way to protect Kara was to stay back. Superman and Kara were in their own world, forgetting Cat and Lena in the background, and while Superman hadn’t responded violently at the first sudden movement, there was no telling what he would do at another—what he would do if Lena or Cat or both tried to interfere.

 

“This doesn’t concern you, Miss Danvers.” If Kara found it odd or off-putting that Superman knew her name she didn’t show it, instead choosing to advance, and when she did, Lena could have sworn that she saw Superman’s throat bob in an anxious swallow.

 

“If it concerns them, it concerns me.” Lena’s jaw clenched at Kara’s words, fear and awe and bewilderment rolling together into one. She wanted to tell Kara no, that they hadn’t earned this from her, but she felt like she was watching a battle between gods for all that Superman and Kara were just standing there, and she knew it would be futile to try and undermine Kara’s conviction.

 

“Miss Da-” Superman spread his hands in a placating gesture, but Kara stepped towards him again and as the distance closed between them, Superman actually stepped back.

 

“I told you to get out. You’re not welcome here, Superman.” Kara took another step, and then another until Superman had backed completely out to the balcony. It was there that Kara leaned in, and while whatever she said next was unintelligible to Lena’s ears, Superman paled. His head bowed and it was almost... submissive? He seemed chastised, if that was possible, maybe even reverent, and a second later he was leaping into the sky without even glancing back at Lena and Cat.

 

Cat’s grip on Lena weakened as soon as he was gone, and with nothing to hold her back anymore Lena surged forward, coming just close enough to see that Kara was shaking.

 

“Kara,” Lena pleaded, not wanting to touch without permission but needing so badly to assure herself that Kara was alright.

 

“Don’t!” The harsh, confident tones Kara had used on Superman were gone, and now finally fear entered her voice and choked sobs reverberated around the room.

 

“Kara,” Cat came up next to Lena, and at that, Cat pronouncing her name correctly for the first time, Kara’s head snapped up. She fixed them with wide, blue eyes that for once weren’t hidden behind glasses and were full of so much uncertainty at their approach. “It’s over, Kara, it’s ok, he’s-”

 

“Don’t!” Kara flinched, wrapping her arms around herself as if she could bring an end to the trembling on her own. “You need to stay away! Please, I’ll hurt you. Please!”

 

It clicked into place, the reason the fear had only come out after Superman had departed the scene. Kara wasn’t afraid of him, even if she should be, she was afraid of herself. That day at the gallery Lena had thought that Kara was asking for support, thought that maybe she wanted someone who was strong enough to be there through her sadness, but it went so much further than that. Kara didn’t just want, she _needed_. She needed to be able to trust that when she was losing against herself, that someone else could be there to strip away all this excess power; that someone else could command her to ease so that she wouldn't lash out and eradicate everything in her wake.

 

That was the true extent of what she had offered them, and when they had rejected it this was the result—a Kara who would still fight for them, but who afterwards would try to hold herself together on her own because they’d told her that they weren’t interested in seeing her through.

 

Well no more.

 

“Kara,” Cat’s voice was as soft as Lena had ever heard it, her hand hovering above Kara’s shoulder. “Let us help, Kara, _please_.” Cat so rarely begged, it wasn’t something she would do for just anyone and it told Lena that Cat had come to a similar decision, that Kara was worth more than any rules or restrictions that had thus far stood in their way.

 

Kara didn’t seem to know what to do, swaying in place as she fluctuated between what she wanted and what she thought was right, and Lena could not wait any longer. It was their fault Kara was unsure, and she hadn’t protested again so Lena took that as leave to fold her arms around Kara’s shaking form as Cat mirrored her from the other side.

 

“It’s ok, Kara, we’ve got you. We won’t let you hurt us. You’re safe,” Lena wasn’t sure which of them was speaking, maybe they were each whispering individual phrases that were blending together into one, but in any event it was working. Kara’s body began to settle under their ministrations, vibrations lessening, and Lena was just reaching up to brush the strands of hair that had come loose during Kara’s run back from her face when Kara’s eyes cleared. She became more the Kara that they were used to, not the angry one verging on the edge of uncontrollable, or the terrified one needing them to intervene, but the Kara who was there every day in Cat’s office; the Kara who was still capable and radiant despite everything she had endured.

 

“I- I have to go.” Kara pulled away from them, giving them a look that was a mixture of gratitude, confusion, and longing. “I have to… I’m sorry,” and then she turned and fled, and when Lena tried to follow, for the second time that night she found Cat blocking her way.

 

“Wait.”

 

///////////////////

 

Lena wasn’t the only one who wanted to go after Kara, Cat did as well, but if Cat let her, Lena would dive in head first just as she had tried to do when Kara had burst through the door. And there was something they needed to discuss first.

 

“Cat, we have to-”

 

“Wait,” she said again. “We need to let Kara process, and this is important. I promise.”

 

Lena stared at her, wavering, but finally she nodded. It hurt her though, Cat could tell, and she resolved to get this over as soon as they got out of this place, as soon as they reached their apartment.

 

It seemed to take hours, the elevator ride down, the tense car ride back, but then they stood in the foyer and Cat gave Lena the missing piece.

 

“She’s Supergirl,” Cat searched Lena’s face, her own expression serious to show this wasn’t a joke.

 

Cat had guessed the moment Kara had stepped in between them. She had been terrified that she was wrong, but even if she was, holding back was still the best option, and when Kara had turned to them after without her glasses and her hair loose, Cat had been certain. It explained why Supergirl had been avoiding her for months—ever since she had hired Kara in fact. It explained all those absences as well, the ones Cat had never asked about because Kara always got her work done regardless and Cat didn’t want to seem too invested.

 

“She, she can’t be… Cat? Are you…” Lena trailed off, combing through the evidence; Superman knowing Kara’s name, his retreat from her, even Kara’s fear that she would hurt them. “But she’s never looked at me like him, not once…”

 

“She’s more than Superman’s cousin, Lena, just as you are more than Lex’s sister.” Cat ran her fingers over the crease in Lena’s brow, knowing that Lena didn’t want it to matter, but also that it would be naïve to assume that there wouldn’t be any misgivings.

 

“Cat, I…” Lena closed her eyes, taking a calming breath. Her hands came up to rest on Cat’s elbows, leaving space between them, and Cat realized that Lena was reliving those minutes where they had held Kara in their arms.

 

“She’s never treated me like Superman.” When Lena opened her eyes the apprehension was gone, replaced with a steadfast faith. “Kara survived the loss of her entire world when she was a teenager, crossed galaxies to come to us. Everything else is meaningless compared to that.” Cat remembered all too well when she had heard about Supergirl’s delayed journey during an interview months before Kara had become her assistant. It had been just a story then, something to sell papers. But now, in the light of all Kara was, it made objections such as her employment status or her family connections seem trivial.

 

“She still has to want us,” Cat reminded her wife, because even after everything they still didn’t know for sure if what Kara wanted was more than friendship. But a smile was already forming on her lips because without self-enforced constraints clouding her judgement, the signs were all there.

 

And just like that a wave of relief crashed over them both, months of bottled yearning taking flight. Cat felt drunk on the possibilities, and for the first time she gave herself conscious permission to believe.

 

“Cat, I want to…” Lena paused, giddy exuberance on her face, emotion driven higher and more unbridled by the contrast from where they had been earlier in the evening. She spun, laughing as her hair whipped around her shoulders. “I’m so… there’s so much energy, Cat. I want to shout, to sing. I want to dance under the stars.”

 

Cat opened her mouth to respond, but Lena was already pulling her to the balcony and Cat found herself chuckling as she shook her head fondly. It was thoroughly ridiculous, and Kara was still out there somewhere, but when this day had brought only trial for so long, she needed this, they both did.

 

Her laughter died at the first graceless steps, giving way to a mock-growl as Lena refused to let her lead. Not that Cat was willing to let Lena lead, either.

 

“This is why we didn’t dance at our wedding,” Cat pointed out as they stumbled, almost tumbling to the ground.

 

“No,” Lena countered, grinning as she darted in to nip playfully at Cat’s nose. “We didn’t dance at our wedding because you spurned my perfectly reasonable compromise that I would let you wear the taller heels if you let me lead when we-”

 

A giggle cut them off and they whirled towards the source. The scathing remark Cat had on the tip of her tongue for whatever staff member had entered this late without knocking died at the sight of Supergirl hovering in the air above them, hand pressed over her mouth and cheeks red in horror at being caught watching.

 

Cat instantly relaxed. Before tonight the idea of a Super showing up here again would have brought a flood of anger and resentment, but now Cat was struck by how right this felt, how Kara’s presence made everything fall into place. And it was Kara there, for all that she was in the costume.

 

Cat could see the residual tension in Kara’s body and Cat felt a fresh wave of admiration at how exceptional Kara was, how resilient. How even though Kara could hardly have had time to sort through the shift in how they had conducted themselves around her in this last hour, she was still here anyway. How her prerogative to guard her identity had taken a backseat to her concern about righting her cousin’s transgression. And how at seeing them like this, Kara could push past her own pain and delight in the joy that they had been experiencing in each other.

 

It was beautiful, and Cat felt suddenly powerful with the knowledge that they had contributed to this. Most of it was Kara, but them holding her—however briefly—had helped her along this path, helped her to start to regain herself. It made Cat crave even more, because if Kara could come before them like this now, after so little, then she had to wonder how much more their full attention could bring.

 

“Supergirl,” a smirk slipped onto Cat’s face, turning the tables so that whatever embarrassment she should have felt at being seen in such a state was mitigated by the alien’s social misstep.

 

“I- I didn’t mean… I just wanted to…” Kara’s hands fiddled with her cape nervously.

 

“Yes?” Lena was also smirking now, and the hero gulped as she looked between them. But then her back straightened and she gathered herself, hands stopping their aimless movements.

 

“I came here to apologize for my cousin,” and yes, there was that strength. It was a fortitude that Kara tried so often to suppress to blend in but that was as inherent to her as breathing was to Cat. “He was out of line and I have made it explicitly clear to him that you two are under my protection.”

 

That statement drew Cat back to just before their first dinner together when Kara had so floundered when trying to express that they were important, but so was everyone else. There was no such indecision this time and Kara hadn’t even tried to give the obvious excuse that the entire city was under her protection. Cat knew she should probably call that out, but what the hell. She couldn’t deny that there was a _rush_ that came from hearing a superhero, from hearing _Kara_ , pledge her loyalty to them so exclusively.

 

Lena cast her a mischievous glance, that glint telling Cat that Lena was also feeling the rush, and that she was not about to let Kara run away again. Not this time.

 

“You’ll have to make it up to us,” Lena held out her hand, gesturing for Supergirl to join them. Kara tilted her head in confusion but that didn’t stop her from complying with the summons, and at that—the way Kara so easily and automatically followed the smallest suggestion—the rush turned into a targeted hunger.

 

It almost didn’t last. There was a flicker of guilt as Kara landed before them and Cat had enough of the pieces by now to know exactly what was going through Kara’s mind. Kara thought that she was taking advantage of their ignorance, that their actions earlier had been a special circumstance and that now that it was over, they wouldn’t wish her to be here like this if they knew who she was. But still Kara wanted to come to them, to retreat from the darkness for just a little bit longer, and Cat was going to make sure that that was the part of Kara that won out.

 

“You do know how to dance, don’t you?” Cat raised an eyebrow, not willing to let Lena have all the fun, and knowing that as long as they kept Kara close, kept her engaged, that darkness and fear could not get in.

 

“Of course I do.” Kara stepped forward and took Lena’s outstretched hand, qualms falling away in the face of how desperately she wanted to give in. “You wouldn’t know it from my cousin’s behavior but the House of El is one of the oldest and noblest of Krypton. I have danced in the great halls of my people, in the spires of Argo City and beyond. I’m sure I can manage a balcony.”

 

“Well then, princess,” Kara’s eyes narrowed at the term, but not in a way that felt remotely like a legitimate threat. It sent another thrill through Cat. There was something deliciously appealing about this proud, self-assured woman that stood so tall and mighty, and yet also accepted Cat’s hand implicitly when it was unfurled in invitation. And that was what Cat wanted, to see both, no _all_ , sides of Kara, and to bring them out in equal measure.

 

“You laughed at us so you can make up for your cousin by demonstrating your skill.” Cat gave a sharp yank, gratified when the air of superiority disappeared as Kara gave a yelp of surprise, her physical strength no match for Cat’s will. As Kara pitched forward Lena adjusted, maintaining her grip around Kara’s other hand and closing in behind her back. The two of them surrounded Kara once again, and Cat was glad that both of them were still wearing their heels, removing the height discrepancy between them.

 

Cat looked at Lena and after a short, soundless battle Lena huffed and backed away, but her gaze was piercing and Cat knew she wouldn’t be allowed this for long. She wasted no time in guiding Kara’s now free hand to her shoulder, letting her fingers linger as the traced from Kara’s arms down to her waist.

 

“Ready?” Her voice was lower than she realized, and the moment felt suddenly serious, on the brink of something more. Or it did, until the first few steps proved to be just as awkward as they had been with Lena.

 

“I _am_ good at dancing,” Kara defended, her blush returning, “it’s just that the way you humans do it is so weird. I’ve been to eleven other planets and no one on any of those would realistically call this dancing.”

 

If this were anyone else Cat would have stopped there, marveling at that information and asking for more. Kara wasn’t anyone else though, and Cat’s journalistic curiosity could wait for another day. “I guess it’s up to us to show you what you’ve been missing, then. I want you to close your eyes. Don’t think about the logistics, just focus on me. Focus on how I feel against you, on my hands on your body. I’ll lead you, all you have to do is trust me.”  

 

Kara studied her, face unreadable for once as she considered, and Cat wondered if Kara could hear how fast her heart was racing in her chest, if she could see how blown Cat’s pupils had become. When Kara’s gaze darted down to Cat’s lips it was almost too much and Cat barely restrained herself from leaning in then and there, but then Kara’s eyes were closing and she offered herself into Cat’s care.

 

This time when they started moving Kara was completely with her, adapting to the smallest brush of Cat’s fingers, the slightest direction of her hand. It was almost perfect… almost… Cat looked over at Lena, smiling to bring her forth, and when next she spun Kara out she relinquished her hold and traded Kara off to her wife. There was the briefest hesitation as Kara acclimated to the new touch, but then she was giving into to Lena as well, and when Lena passed Kara back this time the transfer was flawless. They continued like that, letting Kara feel them, feel the small differences between them, between what they wanted, how they wanted her, and with each step she relaxed more into their embrace.

 

The dance came to an end with both of them encircling her, and Kara’s eyes were still closed when Cat and Lena exchanged one last, silent communication. At Lena’s nod Cat inclined her head, letting her lips ghost over the shell of Kara’s ear, and she whispered the words that would change everything.

 

“You don’t have to be afraid anymore. We have you, _Kara_.”

 

////////////////////

 

Kara knew how she was supposed to react—the years of hiding that had conditioned her to fear this, the denials that had been drilled into her by the DEO—but Cat had told her not to be afraid and with every fiber of her being, she yearned to obey that command.

 

Even so she _should_ pause, there were things to talk about, questions she had to ask, but right now none of that seemed to matter. Earlier tonight she had felt like her very atoms were shaking apart and they had stepped in to save her when she had needed them most. And maybe that was it. Maybe they had been trying to save her all along, walking away from her, keeping their distance, making sure she was gone before Superman arrived. Hadn’t she done the same thing to others before? Always keeping away to keep them safe?

 

Her eyes opened just as Cat pulled back to search her face, just as Lena pressed closer from behind, and rather than fight or dwell on the larger implications of this, Kara let herself fall.

 

“Please,” it was so easy, and instinctually the two sets of hands on her body tightened their grip.   

 

“We promise,” Lena’s voice was low, coming from a place deep in her chest, and Kara could feel the vibrations through her suit, resonating against her skin. “Tell us what you need, Kara. We’ll give you anything you want, but you have to ask just one more time.”

 

Lena’s right hand snaked its way down Kara’s abdomen and she stifled moan as the fingers of Cat’s left trailed their way up to her neck, closing possessively around her throat.

 

“Kara,” Cat said her name again, the sound weighted and filled with desire. “Tell us.”

 

“You.” Kara would have thought it would have come out halted, that she would have been embarrassed by the raw desperation in her voice, but instead it was steady, more on point than anything else she had uttered all evening. It was steadier even, than the warning she had given to Superman in her native language, cautioning him to know his place. That was the final piece that had made him back down, made him bow to her as he always did when faced with the truth of what they were relative to each other. Not just that Kara was older—that she held dominion over him—but that while he would always be more Clark than Kal-El, she _was_ Kara Zor-El, an alien beyond what he could understand. And where Clark shied away because of it, these two women were holding fast.

 

Cat’s hand wrapped more securely around her throat and the fingers of Lena’s other hand splayed themselves wide across her chest, promising again that they could take this, if only she would give enough to ask.

 

“You,” the last of her worry faded and she finished her admission. “Both of you, _please_.”

 

The response was instantaneous, Cat’s lips surging forward to capture her own and Kara moaned again as she let herself go. It was over too quickly, Kara’s mouth scarcely giving way to the exploitation of Cat’s tongue before Cat ended it, tangling her fingers in Kara’s hair and turning her head. And then it was Lena’s eyes that Kara found herself staring into, and Lena’s lips that were devouring her with single minded intent.

 

“ _Ours_.” Cat’s growl settled over her, that one word marking her and claiming her and Kara’s entire body shuddered her assent.


	7. Chapter Seven by abcooper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written by the wonderful abcooper, who has been working with me on edits and plotting throughout the entire fic. Please go read all her stuff because she is an amazing writer and deserves all the love and praise <3

Their rush to the bedroom was usually a competition, a playful back and forth as Cat and Lena grappled for control. Cat found a sense of novelty, almost, in the moment of hesitation at the doorway. She and Lena exchanged a glance, deciding how to move this forward, and instead of competition there was… partnership.

 

It was nice.

 

It was a mutual decision when Lena stepped forward and pulled Kara into a sound kiss, scraping her manicured nails against Kara’s scalp. Kara melted into the sensation and Lena indulged it for a few seconds before she wrapped Kara’s hair around her fingers and tugged. Kara pulled obligingly back, lips still open, and Lena spun her around into Cat’s arms.

 

Cat picked up where Lena had left off, taking Kara’s bottom lip between her teeth, biting down a little more cruelly than she would have if she didn’t know that Kara was invulnerable, that she had no power to hurt her.

 

That was a lie. Kara had handed over that power almost the instant she had come into Cat’s office for a 10:15 interview. Kara chose to make herself vulnerable, and Cat had resisted that temptation so well. Here was her reward.

 

Lena’s hands were still in Kara’s hair, and Cat reached an arm around her wife’s waist while she enjoyed Kara’s mouth, the first of a long list of things she had wanted but never let herself believe she could have. The three of them pressed together, and Lena began placing wet kisses down Kara’s neck as Cat took careful charge with tongue and teeth. Between the two of them they got Kara out of her boots and guided her over to the bed.

 

“How are you feeling?” Cat asked as Kara sat down, looking dazed. Lena sat down as well but pulled back a bit, leaving Cat to check in. Cat appreciated that, appreciated that her wife understood without needing to be told how much Cat needed an explicit conversation, needed to _know_ that she wasn’t taking advantage of her power in the workplace.

 

“…. a little nervous,” Kara admitted after taking a moment to think it over, and Cat sighed in relief because Kara was being thoughtful and honest, and that meant that if she wanted them to stop she would have said so.

 

“Have you done this before?” Cat asked, and Kara huffed a little laugh.

 

“Had sex with my boss and her wife? Not so much. But I’ve wanted to,” she added quickly, as though afraid that her hesitation would make Cat pull back. “For _ages_.”

 

“Have you?” Lena’s tone was all evil gleeas she inserted herself back into the conversation. “Did you think we were pretty together? Did you fantasize about us a little?”

 

Kara turned bright red as she nodded, and Cat rewarded her with a kiss. “You know,” she murmured into Kara’s ear, “we’ve fantasized about you too. This isn’t exactly out of nowhere, Kara.” Kara’s breath caught, and Cat kissed her at the edge of her jaw before she pulled reluctantly back, not ready for the conversation to come to an end. “But there’s no pressure here… I want to know that you’ll tell us to stop if anything is uncomfortable.”

 

“I will,” Kara answered, and her voice became a little stronger. “I want this. I’ll tell you if that changes.”

 

“Good girl,” Cat answered, and Kara shivered. Cat filed that reaction away for later, and sent Lena a meaningful glance. Lena took her cue and pulled Kara further onto the bed, so that her back was flush against Lena’s chest. Cat admired the way they looked, Kara’s blonde sunshine against Lena’s darker coloring. Lena turned Kara’s head so that she could capture her lips in a hard kiss, and her hands drifted to Kara’s supersuit, searching the edges for any kind of hidden zipper or clasp.

 

“How do you get this thing off,” she muttered and Kara giggled, a sweet, effortless sound that had never made an appearance in their bedroom before.

 

“I got it,” she said, and slipped the suit off as though it were made of elastic. It should have been undignified, watching her arch her back to slip what was basically a onesie over her ass, but seeing the lean muscles and sharp lines of Kara revealed was a longstanding fantasy, and Cat savored it, watching as the tights followed the suit into a primary colored pile on the carpet.

 

Then she looked closer and realized that Kara’s cotton bra was covered in a pattern of tiny purple dogs, and she couldn’t help but snort. Kara blushed. “I wasn’t really expecting anyone to see me naked today,” she defended herself, and Lena gave Cat a slightly reproachful look.

 

“You’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about,” Lena promised, and ran light fingertips across the fabric, skirting teasingly around anywhere Kara might really want her to touch. “You’re so lovely, Kara,” she murmured as her fingers moved. “There’s an appeal to peeling these layers off of you one by one, and seeing who you are underneath. It would be easy to be gentle with you, to pamper you a little. But I don’t think gentle is what you want,” and she took Kara’s nipple between her fingers and pinched, more than hard enough to hurt through the fabric.

 

When Lena pinched, Cat usually pinched back. Kara gave a full bodied shudder.

 

“Yes,” she breathed, and her head relaxed back against Lena’s shoulder. Lena caught Cat’s eyes and Cat reluctantly tore herself away from the view to rummage quietly through their drawer while Lena played with Kara’s breasts. She came back and handed the handcuffs off to Lena.

 

Kara was busy melting into a puddle in Lena’s lap, arching shamelessly into Lena’s expert touches. She didn’t even notice the new addition until Lena looped a cuff around one of her wrists and clicked it into place. Her head came up, and her breath stuttered as she caught sight of the metal circling her skin.

 

“I could break these like they’re made of construction paper,” she pointed out, breathless, and Cat felt a rush of heat at how _brazen_ she was, at how visibly Kara was enjoying being mostly naked in her wife’s lap.

 

“You could,” Lena agreed, “but if you do, you’re going to be in a _lot_ of trouble.” Kara’s eyes darkened in response to the wealth of cruel promise in Lena’s tone, and Cat could see her struggling with the temptation. For a moment she thought Kara would resist, but she got herself under control, and submitted as Lena pulled her off of her lap and around onto the bed, placing a pillow for Kara’s back before she looped the cuff through the headboard and hooked it around Kara’s other wrist, securing Kara’s arms behind her head.

 

“I will also be _extremely_ displeased if you break the headboard,” Cat said, and didn’t mean it in an entirely sexual way - she liked their bed.

 

Kara nodded obediently; she knew the difference between Lena’s promise of punishment and Cat’s genuine threat of displeasure. She’d spent enough time meeting Cat’s every whim by now.

 

She was propped up on the pillow, her arms held above her head and Cat enjoyed leaning down to capture her lips in a long, easy kiss - the angle was powerful, the way that Kara’s chin tilted up to meet her. She let her fingers run possessively across Kara’s neck, mimicking a hold, though she didn’t add any pressure. Kara swallowed, and she felt it under her hand.

 

Cat had tied up women before, but there was something different about Kara handcuffed to the bed, about knowing that Kara could break free any time she wanted and was choosing not to. That she was instead choosing to hold herself still and let her mouth fall open under Cat’s demanding lips.

 

There was also the addition of Lena’s heated gaze roving over both of them, of having a partner to witness it.

 

Cat let her nails rake up Kara’s stomach, digging them in a bit harder. They didn’t leave a mark - not even a streak of pink, and she was torn between wishing she could mark Kara as her own, and being hopelessly turned on by the thought of everything Kara could _take_.

 

“Feels good,” Kara murmured, and Cat cupped her breasts, suddenly impatient to get the stupid fabric off and have Kara naked. Before she could even form a proper scowl Lena handed her the pair of nail scissors from the bedside table, and Cat grinned wickedly as she slid the flat of the blade along Kara’s shoulder.

 

“What -” Kara started, and then, “hey!” as Cat neatly snipped the strap of her bra, and then reached over and did the same on the other side.

 

“I’ll replace it,” Cat promised. Not, however, with anything dog-printed. She imagined the pleasure of seeing Kara in one of her hideous pastel blouses, and knowing that underneath it she was wearing la perla.

 

But the fantasy could wait for when she didn’t have the reality at her fingertips, so to speak. She leaned in and reached around Kara’s back, her face pressed up against Kara’s neck for a moment as she undid the clasp and pulled the ruined bra out from around her, tossing it to the floor as a casualty of the evening.

 

“Very nice,” Lena murmured, and Cat, sitting back to observe her handiwork, had to agree.

 

“Where do you want to start?” she asked Lena, letting her gaze wander slowly down Kara’s form. She might have expected Kara to blush under the scrutiny, but Kara looked downright relaxed. The way her head was comfortable against the pillow, her lidded gaze, the causal angle of her arms - it couldn’t be clearer from her body language that tied up for their pleasure was _exactly_ where Kara wanted to be.

 

Lena laughed at the question, tucking a strand of Cat’s hair thoughtfully behind her ear, and Cat surprised herself with a rush of affection. It struck her how much _better_ this was - being partners with her wife in the bedroom, working toward a common goal.

 

And Kara made such an _excellent_ goal.

 

“Why don’t you start at the top and I’ll start at the bottom, and we can meet in the middle?” she suggested humorously, and Cat snorted.

 

“I thought you didn’t want to spoil her,” she pointed out.

 

“Oh, that’s not spoiling her - it’s spoiling us,” Lena argued. “We’ve waited months for the chance to take her apart, I’d like to start by doing a _very_ thorough job. Then maybe we can see about putting her back together.”

 

Kara’s breath was stuttering in anticipation, her eyes fluttering shut, and Cat could see that Lena was enjoying the effect of her words as much as Cat was. Kara was just so responsive to them; it was like she was made to be in their bed.

 

Since Lena’s suggestion had been a bit of a gift - she _knew_ Cat had a neck thing - Cat took it to heart, leaning in to kiss along Kara’s jaw line. “How does that sound to you?” she asked, and Kara just hummed, smiling at her.

 

“A little too relaxed, maybe,” Lena decided, smirking. “I think we need to do something to get her energy up.”

 

“I’ll do whatever you want,” Kara promised, and Cat ran rewarding fingers through her hair.

 

“For the next 15 minutes, your only job is to not break the bed,” she told her. Lena made an easy sound of agreement and took Kara’s ankles in her hands, spreading them apart. The motion wasn’t gentle, and Kara’s breath hitched as her legs fell open, Lena taking full control.

 

Kara shivered as Lena ran teasing strokes up her calves, pressing just hard enough not to tickle. Cat took a moment to enjoy the sight before she leaned in and captured Kara’s mouth, not bothering with any front of gentleness, not when it was so clear that Kara wanted to be devoured just as badly as Cat wanted to devour her. She pulled Kara’s lower lip between her teeth and _bit_ , hard, swallowing the sound Kara made in response.

 

Kara’s mouth fell open under Cat’s, moving forward to seek more every time Cat pulled back for air. Cat got lost in the sensation, letting her hands trace greedily over the lines of Kara’s muscled neck as she did her best to mark those unbruisable lips.

 

Cat couldn’t see what Lena was doing, but every once in awhile Kara would jerk, or her head would toss back and she would lose the rhythm of their kisses for a moment. Lena’s hand came up to hold onto Cat’s hip as she moved further up Kara’s body, and when Cat pulled back to look, she saw Lena’s teeth sink into Kara’s thigh. Kara cried out in pleasure, her entire body stiffening as she threw her head back.

 

“Do you like a little pain, darling?” Cat asked, stroking a thumb down her cheek. Kara leaned into the touch, almost nuzzling Cat’s hand.

 

“It’s good,” she said a little hoarsely. “Doesn’t really hurt, but I like it.” Her sentences were slurred, and Cat could tell that she didn’t really want to be talking, too focused on the sensations Lena was producing. Cat decided to press a little more anyway, curious about how Kara would react. She wanted to uncover all of Kara, wanted to break through every limitation Kara thought she had.

 

“Tell me how this feels,” she demanded, and stroked her fingers along the underside of Kara’s breast.

 

“It’s nice,” Kara breathed.

 

“What do you usually like best? What makes you come when you’re alone, doing this to yourself?” Cat asked, and kept stroking, little circular movements that brought her closer to brushing Kara’s nipple.

 

“I don’t know,” Kara answered, and there was a definite _whine_ in her voice as she strained forward, trying to direct Cat’s touch where she wanted. Cat swatted her lightly.

 

“Answer the question or I’m staying right where I am,” she promised, and Lena smirked, running her nails along Kara’s thighs in wicked, teasing strokes that stopped inches short of the soaked fabric of Kara’s underwear.

 

“I like things to be hard, I guess? Lots of sensation - Cat, I don’t want to talk anymore,” she pled, and Cat relented.

 

“Alright, darling, we promised you wouldn’t have to do anything for awhile except go along for the ride. You’re being very good,” she said, and took Kara’s nipple between her fingers as a reward, pinching sharply.

 

“Ohh,” Kara sighed, and sank easily back into the headspace they’d pulled her out of with their questions. She was utterly pliant now, soft sighs giving way to moaning as Cat played with her nipples, twisting and flicking.

 

Her back arched off the bed when Cat finally took a nipple possessively between her teeth, teasing it with her tongue. She alternated between Kara’s breasts, wringing soft cries from Kara’s lips, while Lena continued to tease her from below with kisses and nips along her thighs and stomach until suddenly Kara’s entire body clenched and shuddered in an unmistakable rhythm, cries giving way to pants as she tried to catch her breath. Cat and Lena both stopped, exchanging a startled glance.

 

“My goodness,” Lena murmured, and petted Kara’s thigh soothingly from her spot between Kara’s legs, no longer teasing. “We did have you worked up….”

 

“Sorry,” Kara muttered, looking a bit embarrassed, and Cat captured her lips in a reassuring kiss.

 

“Sorry for being so responsive?” Lena asked, and laughed a little. “Darling, we’re thrilled. We want to make you feel good.”

 

“Don’t think that we’re done after your first orgasm,” Cat added. “We haven’t even touched you properly yet...” She let her hand trail suggestively down Kara’s stomach, and Kara shuddered underneath her touch.

 

Lena leaned back in and began placing kisses up Kara’s thighs. “Cat, look how wet she is,” she said, and Cat obligingly ran light fingers over the soaked fabric of Kara’s underwear. Kara writhed, still sensitive, simultaneously trying to pull away from the touch and press into it.

 

“I think it might be time for these to go,” Cat said, and cast a longing look at the abandoned scissors. She’d like to shred Kara’s entire wardrobe, if she could get away with it, and then handpick the replacements.

 

Lena’s lips quirked with amusement, picking up on Cat’s thought process with ease. “I think these we can leave in one piece,” she said, and demonstrated, running her fingers under the line of the fabric before pulling them gently down, so that they rested halfway down Kara’s thighs, finally exposing Kara fully.

 

“But _should_ they stay in one piece?” Cat muttered. She was already distracted, though, by the sight of soaked curls. She stroked her hand down Kara’s stomach again, tangling her fingers in Kara’s hair and pulling lightly. Lena had gone back to dropping kisses everywhere but where Kara wanted them, licking at the stickiness that was coating Kara’s inner thighs. She looked up at Cat, a question in her eyes. Cat nodded, giving her the go ahead, and Lena dove in at last, running her tongue through Kara’s wet folds in one long stroke.

 

The noise Kara made was explosive, her hips thrusting into the air until Cat placed a hand flat along her abdomen and pushed her back down. Cat was very aware of the hard muscle under her touch, of the power contained there - and of just how compliant and eager Kara was for them.

 

Lena was circling Kara’s clit with her tongue now in a way that Cat was intimately familiar with, light flicks and swirls that never quite put any pressure where it was really needed.

 

“You’re ours now, you know,” Cat commented idly. “We’ve wanted to have you since the moment we saw you. We’ve wanted to possess you, every inch of you. Do you want to hear what I’ve imagined doing to you, Kara?”

 

“Yesss,” Kara moaned, practically begging as she writhed against Lena’s mouth. Cat gripped her neck firmly in warning. Kara stilled.

 

“We’re just testing the boundaries tonight, but you’ve known me awhile - am I usually a patient person?” Cat asked.

 

“N-no,” Kara answered, her teeth gritted in the effort to stay still as Lena worked her over, her fists clenching helplessly within the cuffs.

 

“I think I’ve been patient for long enough. We stayed away for a long time because we were afraid you might be too fragile for us - we thought we could break you. But you’re not going to break under us, are you? We realized that you’re going to be able to take _everything_ we give you, Kara. You’re going to be so good for us.”

 

As if to punctuate Cat’s words, Cat saw Lena dig her fingernails cruelly into Kara’s thighs where she was holding them open. Kara’s breathing stuttered, but she kept herself still. “I want to be good,” she agreed, and Cat smiled.

 

“You will be,” she reiterated, and then changed gears. “Have you ever been tied standing up, Kara? So that you have to stand on tiptoe to take your own weight off of your wrists? So that you’re completely helpless?”

 

Kara whimpered.

 

“Sometime I’m going to strip you naked and tie you up in front of the big window in our living room,” Cat decided. “I’m going to leave you there, with a vibrator in not _quite_ the right place - leave you desperately trying to get more, with wetness dripping down your thighs. We’re going to sit on the couch and look over magazine spreads, with your moans as our background music. You’re going to beg for _hours_ , just for our pleasure, where the whole world could see you if they bothered to look.”

 

“ _Please,”_ Kara gasped, and then cried out noiselessly, her stomach muscles shifting and shuddering under Cat’s hand as she came a second time.

 

Lena lifted her head from between Kara’s thighs, her face shining with wetness, her eyes dark and heated. Cat felt a bolt of lust jolt through her - at the predatory expression on Lena’s face, at the sight of her wife framed between Kara’s knees after all this time trying to avoid letting that fantasy meet reality. There was no jealousy - not at seeing her wife fuck someone else, and not at seeing her wife fuck _Kara_ , when Cat hadn’t yet, really. There was no need for it, when Lena was hers, and she was Lena’s, and Kara was _theirs._

 

As quickly as she could manage, she uncuffed Kara from the miraculously unbroken headboard. Kara looked dazed, like she hadn’t quite recovered, and Cat used the moment to shed her own skirt and underwear at last, suddenly unable to wait another second.

 

She grabbed a handful of Kara’s hair and yanked, pulling until Kara followed the motion, letting herself be guided as Cat shifted herself so that she was sitting against the headboard, with Kara’s head between her legs.

 

She needed no further instructions. Cat’s eyes fluttered as Kara’s tongue made an exploratory first swipe through her wet curls, and she acknowledged ruefully to herself that this wasn’t going to take long. She kept Kara’s hair wrapped tightly around her fist, exerting a firm pressure. Kara’s tongue moved fast and hard against her clit, eager to please, and Cat was suddenly struck again by the reminder that Kara was superpowered, that she could do this for hours, that she didn’t even need to _breathe_ as often as other people.

 

Cat pulled her hair, bringing Kara’s head up, and flipped her over, putting her onto her back.

 

“What…” Kara started to ask, and then her voice trailed off as Cat straddled her face.

 

“Keep going,” Cat told her, and ground down against her mouth, balancing one hand against the headboard.

 

Kara did as she was told, tilting her head upward and finding her place again. Cat set the pace, pressing into Kara’s mouth in a merciless rhythm and letting Kara struggle to keep up. Kara reached to grab at Cat’s hips, and Lena caught one hand before it could land, pulling it to the side. She’d shed her own clothing, and she brought Kara’s hand down with her own as she touched herself, pressing Kara’s palm against her clit and writhing against it, holding onto Cat’s shoulder with her other hand. It wasn’t a good angle, with Kara on her back, but she cooperated as best she could. Her tongue stuttered as her focus shifted, and Cat gave her hair another sharp tug, bringing her back.

 

Cat lost herself in it, the feeling of Kara’s tongue, the rhythm, the sound of Lena’s heavy breathing next to her as Lena’s fingers clenched against her shoulder. It built up until Cat tipped over the edge with a loud cry, her thighs tightening around Kara’s face. She stayed where she was as she came down, catching her breath and letting Lena continue to hold her as she pressed Kara’s hand against herself, using Kara to bring herself to climax. The moment hung in the balance and then Lena’s back arched and she cried out, her orgasm shuddering through her.

 

She rolled to the side, chest heaving, and Cat did the same, swinging her legs around and adjusting herself on the other side, so that Kara was sandwiched between them. Kara looked thoroughly fucked, her face and hand wet, and Cat couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss her, enjoying the taste of herself on Kara’s lips. She had, on occasion, been accused of being a narcissist.

 

“Was that everything you wanted it to be?” Cat asked Lena, smiling at the familiar sight of her wife recovering from an orgasm. Lena’s make-up had gotten smeared just a little over the course of the evening, and her arms were sprawled loosely around her as though she’d been dropped into her position. The overall effect was one of supreme satisfaction.

 

“I have no complaints to register. She’s everything we’ve needed, everything we both thought she would be, don’t you think?”

 

Kara blushed, looking pleased and a little uncertain as Cat nodded her agreement.

 

“I liked it too,” Kara whispered, and Lena pulled her in for a kiss, soft but possessive. Cat rearranged herself comfortably on the pillow, content to let sleepiness settle over her while her wife coddled Kara a little in the aftermath.

 

After a long moment, Lena released Kara and then leaned over her to capture Cat’s lips as well. “Thank you for this,” she murmured as she pulled back, and Cat smiled again, wiping away a line of smeared lipstick with a practiced finger.

 

When they returned their attention to Kara, she was looking at them with something like helpless longing written across her face. “I - I should get dressed and let you two get back to your night...” she said, and Cat understood what was going on, understood that Kara still thought of Cat and Lena as a pair, as something that she was on the outside of; welcomed in only briefly, and sent away again when they had no use for her.

 

“Don’t be ridiculous, Kara,” she said firmly.

 

“Obviously you’re staying here tonight,” Lena added. “We’ve just gotten you.”

  
  
“And we have every intention of keeping you,” Cat finished, putting a firm arm around Kara’s waist and tucking Kara against her. Lena reached over to switch off the light, and took up her spot on the other side. Kara sighed, relaxing between them, and Cat let her eyes flutter shut, content that everything would be the way she wanted it when she woke in the morning.


	8. Chapter Eight

There was something poking her in the ribs.

 

Lena tried to tune out the annoyance, but it came again and with a small huff she opened her eyes. The glare she had been planning on shooting her wife dropped away as her gaze fell across Kara, still asleep with her head tucked against Cat’s chest, the sheets that had been kicked down sometime during the night leaving her exposed to the first rays of the morning sun.

 

Almost too slowly, the feeling in the rest of her body caught up to what she was seeing, and she realized that the pleasant warmth against her front was due to the way she was wrapped protectively around Kara from the other side. Her head was cushioned on the pillow just above the golden strands of Kara’s hair, and her arm was draped over Kara’s waist, holding them flush together.

 

“Look,” Cat whispered, pulling her hand back and resting it on the curve of Kara’s hip. “Just give it a second an-”

 

Cat cut off as Kara stirred, not waking from the gentle touch or soft tones of Cat’s voice, but as the light brightened when a cloud moved out of the way, Kara’s face turned ever so slightly to bask in the glow. Lena’s breath hitched as she watched, Kara’s natural beauty accentuated even more. But as captivating as the vision was, it was also too much, to ethereal, and there was part of her that clenched painfully with the idea that this was too unbelievable to be true.

 

“Cat?” With effort Lena lifted her eyes to focus primarily on Cat, seeking reassurance to prove to herself that the last 12 hours hadn’t been a dream.

 

“She’s been doing that whenever the light changes.” Cat explained. “I think it has to do with what she is. I didn’t want you to miss it.”

 

And there it was, the mysteries and uncertainties that had been driving their interest in Kara all these months able to show themselves through something so simple. Cat and Lena had thought they knew everything, that they understood the limits to which another person could fit into their lives. Yet Kara had continually exceeded every expectation, because how could they have calculated for the non-human experience? For the girl who blossomed like this in the sunlight that was so different from where she had been born? Kara was someone they couldn’t predict, couldn’t account for, and somehow, inexplicably, she _was_ real.

 

The band around her heart began to ease. Shifting, Lena propped herself up on one elbow and reached with her other arm to trace the line of Cat’s jaw.

 

“Thank you.” She had said it last night, but Lena had the feeling that each new day from now on would see her saying it again and again, just as there would also be plenty of opportunities for Cat to say it right back.

 

Cat kissed Lena’s palm in acknowledgement, but before the moment could become too sweet, she followed it up with a warning nip against Lena’s wrist.

 

“Careful, darling. You’re upsetting our charge.” Cat nodded down to where Lena’s arm had cast a shadow across Kara’s face, causing her nose to wrinkle adorably and a disgruntled murmur to escape her lips as she started to wake.

 

“What was that, Kara?” Lena maneuvered her arm back, unable to resist pausing to brush an errant strand of hair behind Kara’s ear as she did.

 

In response Kara sighed, exhaling a string of strange syllables as the light graced her uninterrupted once more.

 

“Kara?” It was Cat who spoke this time, single eyebrow raising when Kara chased the sound, tilting her head up and letting loose more of those alien words.

_“Kryptonian.”_ It was so obvious, and Lena laughed as whatever apprehension had remained drained away. This wasn’t about how Kara was unique from everyone else anymore, it was just about Kara being here, being fully herself. About Kara being comfortable enough between the two of them that her native language could spill from her so freely. And about how, with her senses, even when half-asleep she should have known on some level that she wasn’t in her own bed, but instead of tensing as the years of hiding and lies must have trained her to do, she was unguarded. She trusted that she was safe.

 

Lena’s laugh had an unintended consequence, and before she could stifle it, blue eyes opened and blinked up at them groggily. The anxiety of the previous evening that had caused Kara to try to leave flickered as she became aware, but then it was replaced with a quiet, peaceful smile as she took in the women surrounding her.

 

“I’m here.” Kara’s voice was colored with a thick accent as she made the switch to English, and Lena hoped it wouldn’t fade too quickly

 

“You are.” Lena returned her hand to Kara’s waist, intertwining her fingers with Cat’s in the process. Ghosting her lips over Kara’s jaw, just below her ear, she caused Kara’s eyes to flutter closed and her back to arch almost imperceptibly.

 

Lena’s desire began to build, doubling when Cat joined her and captured Kara in a kiss, both of them working together to draw a soft, pliant moan from deep within Kara’s chest. She considered taking it further, dragging her name from Kara while that foreign lilt was still on her tongue, but that would require releasing her grip on Cat, so it would have to wait.

 

As much as she wanted Kara writhing under them again, right in this instant, this was better. After all the nights when she and Cat had slept with space in between them, enjoying the proximity of each other but never quite finding the right balance to be in their partner’s arms, with Kara here that balance existed at last. Even though it was only now that she and Cat had reached for one another, Lena felt like she was waking up for the first time knowing what it was like to hold Cat through the night, and she couldn’t let go. Not yet.

 

Cat seemed to be feeling the same thing, her fingers tightening around Lena’s, and she met Lena’s eye with a wry quirk of her lips. Lena reveled in the look, as she had been reveling in Kara a few seconds before, and in the combination of the two Lena thought she just might have found her completion.

 

Turning back to Kara, but still with the weight of Cat’s gaze across her skin, Lena opened her mouth to ask Kara how she had slept when the alarm went off, the blaring noise piercing through their little bubble of contentment.

_Work_. They had work. And lives. And there was a whole planet out there that would demand an explanation as to what Kara was doing in their bed.

 

It was an almost physical hurt, the separation as Cat reclaimed her hand, the shift as she and Kara moved to allow Cat to roll over and shut off the alarm.

 

“We could call in?” Lena grasped at a way to forget about the outside world for several more hours, forget that even if Kara hadn’t come here in her supersuit, she would still have had to sneak out when she left.

 

“Kara?” Cat extended the offer.

 

Kara had pulled up, her back resting against the headboard and her arms wrapping around her knees, not quite hiding herself away but no longer wholly with them, either. It was a stark representation of what this really was; Kara had become theirs and they hers, but not unequivocally.

 

“I-” Kara stopped, tilting her head as her concentration wavered. “There’s a fire down by the docks.”

 

Lena wasn’t prepared for the rush of confused emotion that statement brought. There was fear, a dull ache reminiscent of how she had felt when Kara had stepped between them and Superman. Relief, that it was only a fire, that the chances of Kara being harmed were so low. And guilt, because more than just not wanting Kara to go, she didn’t want Kara to go for something like _this_. Kara was a hero, and she might be safe this time, but the next? Maybe being an alien, being Supergirl, being all of it, was part of why they had fallen for Kara, but now that a future together—even an imperfect one—might actually be possible, all Lena wanted to do was fold Kara in close and shield her from whatever monsters were lurking in her path.

 

But she couldn’t. The way Kara had ducked her head, becoming hesitant, apologetic even, was enough to tell her that. Kara was fighting with herself as she lingered here with them, and they had caused Kara too much pain already.

 

“It’s ok, Kara.” Her hand landed on Kara’s knee, squeezing in assurance.

 

“It’s who you are,” Cat followed, cupping Kara’s cheek to make her look back up at them. “Go.”

 

Kara’s doubt disappeared, the confidence they had experienced when she had landed on their balcony surging to the surface, and Lena was once again awed by how they were able to center Kara so easily. But that didn’t mean that she didn’t still feel the immediate loss when, with a gust of wind, Kara was gone.

 

“It’s who she is,” Cat echoed herself into the silence that had been left in Kara’s wake, but Lena noticed the clenched fist that betrayed how Cat was struggling as well.

 

“We’ll be here for after,” Lena said, leaning forward to run her fingers over Cat’s arm. “She doesn’t need us to protect her from a physical blow,” she tried to chuckle at the absurdity of that, a transparent attempt to convince herself—just as much as Cat—that that was something they could accept. “But we can be there for all the rest.”

 

“Can we, though?” Cat turned to her. “I won’t have her be a secret, Lena. I won’t-”

 

“We’ll figure it out.” Lena was surprised by how sure she sounded, but with the thought of all that Kara could do, all that she was still to face, suddenly this one problem seemed more manageable. “Let Kara take care of the superhuman feats. The two of us can handle the human ones. We’ll find a way for Kara to walk by our side.”

 

Cat stared at her, pursing her lips, but Lena could see her wife’s mind beginning to churn. Her eyes were brimming, the hand relaxing from its fist, and Lena knew that nothing could stand against the Queen of All Media when she set herself to a task.

 

A flash of white in the corner of her eye drew Lena’s attention, a piece of paper on the bed shifting in the breeze from the window Kara had left open, and Lena moved to pick it up. Frowning down at it, it took a moment for Lena to absorb what was written on the CatCo stationary, probably ripped from the pad Cat kept on her nightstand and filled in at superspeed.

 

It was a list, the first nine items the same languages Kara had given them already, but underneath those Kara had added a tenth, characters Lena didn’t recognize but that she assumed were Kryptonian. And underneath that? The numbers went on even as the spaces after them remained blank.

 

“This was how it started between all of us, isn’t it?” Cat took the paper from her and traced the additions almost reverently. “Before that night we wanted her individually, but this was the first time that the three of us came together in one place, the first time we learned something concrete about her.”

 

Lena nodded, feeling anticipation well in her chest. The message of the paper was clear, that Kara would be back, that there was more of her to unravel, and that she wanted them to have it all.

 

“She was lying though, when she said she only spoke nine,” and now Lena was smiling, biting her lip as she contemplated. “That’s not something we can just forgive, is it?”

 

“No,” Cat met her gaze head on, her own smirk appearing as she read Lena’s intent. “No, I don’t believe it is.”

 

Power rose up around them, cloaking the room and stretching outwards to encompass the city, falling over Kara as she battled the fire and continuing on to the farthest reaches of their influence. Soon enough Kara would be coming home, and they would be waiting, and somehow, even if it was difficult, even if there would be hell to pay, they would make the entire world bow to that inevitability.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for reading this! I hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to hearing your thoughts <3

**Author's Note:**

> So much thanks to abcooper for plotting help, edits, writing chapter seven, and for putting up with me making her read the same sentences over and over again each time I change one word. <3


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